Projects with Spoonflower fabrics

This week and last week, I have been working on some projects for a friend. She recently watched my baby for 3 whole days and I promised her I would make her a few things in exchange. She is an artist and enjoys getting her designs printed on fabric via Spoonflower.

First, I made her two "brainy balls" for her niece and nephew. I really liked her designs and I think they worked well with the brainy balls. (The airplane print is paired with a Michael Miller Ta Dot).

I found the Spoonflower fabric a bit difficult to work with for these balls- mostly when I was sewing the wedges together with the citrus-themed fabrics. The texture of the fabric is kind of coarse and it literally hurt my fingers to do the hand-sewing.

Finally, here is a purse she asked me to make. Now I have made this purse seven times! I think I love the pattern so much because it has a "patchwork" element that can be modern/young looking. I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

Natalie is very happy with these things and I couldn't be more grateful to her for taking great care of my kiddo.

***

Now I need to vent about an issue I have been having this week: sewing issues! I keep running into problems lately:

1) Every Joann's in the area has run out of a pre-quilted solid I always use to make the above bag. I even had my mom pick up a piece of the fabric at her Joann's - it turned out to not be the right one (it was not my mom's fault - apparently the sales associate thought that "off-white" meant "an ugly, cheap imitation of linen")! I ended up having to improvise and make a substitution.

2) In preparation for this weekend's opportunity to use my church's gym to baste a large quilt - I bought backing fabric without bringing the quilt top to the store. I figured I would be safe considering there are about 100 colors in the "Good Folks" collection. I came home with 4 yds of Kona Cotton solid "Midnight" which turns out to be much more purple than blue.........

3) I borrowed an emroidery hoop to do some embellishment on a flickr bee block. It was awesome when I took off the hoop only to discover that it had left streaks of dirt on my bee block!

I know we all have these sewing debacles - but three in a row has been a bit much!

A Quilter's Gathering, Nashua, NH

Thank goodness I found out about a quilt show to attend last week. It had been a LONG week as I didn't schedule much in order to encourage my son to get back to his twice a day nap schedule. Anyway, by Friday, I HAD to get out of the house! My mom came with me to a quilt show in Nashua, NH: A Quilter's Gathering.

After having attended two major shows in Manchester and Lowell this summer, this one in Nashua felt very small and I definitely felt that it was more about vendors than being a quilt show. But I still had a lot of fun and really appreciated my mother's help in watching Gregory while we browsed.

This quilt was my favorite one displayed - it's whole cloth with very intricate quilting. The other side was completley white with different colors of thread in the same design. Very impressive! There was a nice display of Amish quilts - all hand-pieced and often made from scraps. This star one was my favorite.

Of course I was drawn to a hexagonal quilt, I couldn't believe when I discovered that this quilt was made entirely out of chicken and egg fabrics!

The use of solids in this quilt was very eye-catching.

This quilt was my mother's favorite - it was made using a fabric folding technique.

Of course, I ended up breaking my fabric diet and found a few goodies. The Joel Dewberry chocolate woodgrain is one of my FAVORITES! I bought all that they had (only 2 yds) for $5 per yard! I heard a rumor that this fabric is going to be reprinted by the end of the year - the fabric company would be wise to do so, as this fabric is highly sought after.

I also couldn't resist the little bikes - I had never seen that print before and it's a fun boy-ish fabric!

I promise I have been doing lots of sewing lately - right now I am working on some promised projects for a friend. I will post very soon with the completed results!

Hexagonal flowers

(I decided to sash the flowers in charcoal - a decision I was anxious about but it really does make the colors pop, no?)

(I finally bought a $3 organizational container to carry around my hexagonal supplies - definitely beats a ratty ziploc bag!)

I have 27 Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks completed - I figured out that I need to make about 72 for a queen sized quilt. I only make these when "on the go" or when I am just too tired to sit at the sewing machine but still want to make something.

When I show these to people, they often think I am crazy because it looks like a lot of work. I really don't think they are "that bad" - and people have to understand that I think it is essential to always have a sewing project that is portable. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish when you use little chunks of time here and there to make something!

Blogger's Quilter Festival

My friend Meaghan inspired me to enter the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

Pictured in this post is a quilt I made just as I was attempting to cross the bridge of traditional quilting to more modern quilting. I had so many "traditional" and restrictive quilting rules in my head that I thought I had to follow: always use a pattern, use fabrics only from the same line/designer, have a border, back the quilt with a print, etc. And here is the result: I have a love/hate relationship with this quilt. I am proud of it because I love the fabrics it showcases (Park Slope by Erin McMorris for Free Spirit), it is well made, it is HUGE, and I stitched the last stitch on the binding maybe 2 days before my son was born (October 2009).

I hate it because it is way too busy - I guess that is the main thing that bugs me about it. It needs a neutral or two!

Even the long-arm quilter who quilted it for me had to make several derisive comments about it's craziness (she did lack tact, I have to say). But that leads me to another thing that bugs me: it really was expensive to have someone else long arm quilt it - which is partly why I have 7 unquilted tops sitting in a box (I have had a fear of doing my own machine quilting and thought that I would always have to send quilt tops out in order to be quilted but I haven't been in a position to pay someone to complete all those quilts for me!)

I barely put this quilt back on my bed, on top of my liberty quilt. I needed a break from it and now I am loving it again.

The pattern is Yellow Brick Road Pattern for Atkinson designs. It measures 93 x 102. Thanks for stopping by!

Fabric Love

[Photo above is Weekends fabric by Erin McMorris - not as wonderful as Park Slope, but world's better than Wildwood.]

My SIL recently congratulated me for finally creating a sewing blog as opposed to a fabric blog. Scroll back to some of my older posts and you will soon see that most of my entries were pictures of fabric - nothing created out of them. It was laughable - but hey - I am the first one to admit that I like fabric more than sewing!

Anyway, I wanted to write about fabric I have been drooling over lately:

First, the Far, Far Away 2 roses by Heather Ross. I purchased quite a bit of FFA2 from a fabric co-op, but I neglected to get very much of the roses. I hadn't realized that while Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and the Owl and Pussy Cat are adorable, the roses have a certain kind of sophistication and can definitely be used for more grownup projects. I have seen FFA1 be on sale for as low as $6 per yard, so I am sure the time will come when we can get FFA2 at clearance prices. The word is that Heather Ross is releasing a new fabric line in the spring (everyone is praying it's neither double gauze nor linen - just give us some more affordable and easier to work with cotton please!)

All Star 2 recently hit the shelves. It seems like a great collection of boy fabrics and definitely not babyish.

Finally, everyone in blogland seems to be going nuts for Innocent Crush. I particularly like the blue/purple line. But I am on the fence on ever making a quilt out of any of it - I already have a Good Folks quilt top and a small stash of her earlier collections - Bohemian and Garden Party. How many really crazy/busy AMH quilts does a girl really need?

I don't have a picture of it, but you should really check out this upcoming line from Moda: Sherbet Pips. It is incredibly adorable and especially appropriate for a little girl. It doesn't come out until April 2011.

I have been thinking lately that a lot of the "modern" fabrics I am drawn to are often kid-oriented. I can't really think of a collection that is out right now that I would use to make a blanket for say, my mom. I don't really think she would appreciate something with big bright owls or fairy tale characters. She likes modern fabrics and colors - but wouldn't appreciate a major rainbow from Remix or bees and hummingbirds like Flora and Fauna. Am I missing something out there in the market?

Fabric pictures courtesy of FabricShoppe.

Happy Halloween

This is what my sewing machine looked like on Friday afternoon. I am finally working on blocks for my sister's quilt. I pulled the fabrics a few months ago and could not think of a quilt design. I finally settled on a "Timeless Treasure" free pattern that had been sent to me in the mail - a very simple block style. There are over 100 blocks to make the size quilt she needs, so this isn't going to be completed too quickly! I wrote in my last post that I was going to slow down - I kind of wore myself out by making four softies, a charity quilt top, a bee block, and an entire quilt - all in about one week. Consequently, there was too much not getting done in my home and I want to maintain some sort of balance for the sake of my family and my own sanity. (Lately Gregory has been skipping some naps - so my free time has been limited anyways!) I find it difficult to not just sew whenever I have a free moment - but life's responsibilies come calling and you can only ignore a dirty floor for so long. It's always a juggling act for sure.

Gryffindor Satchel

Last week I went on a trip with my mother and sister to Orlando. We went to the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" and several Disney theme parks. Our whole family enjoys the Harry Potter series but we are not fanatics. After this post, however, you might believe at least one of us is a little nuts for the series.

My sister Emily bought a few things at the Harry Potter section of the theme park and asked if we could make a bag before she returned to CO. Upon completion, I was happy to remind her that she could definitely state she had made her bag because she really did at least 50% of the work. She did all the cutting, seam ripping, ironing, hand sewing, etc.

She bought duck cloth from Joann's - which is pretty sturdy stuff - I broke two sewing machine needles while making it.

The ribbon on the strap used to be a lanyard which is supposed to be used for pinning a bunch of theme park pins on it.

We found this cute owl button that looked nice outside the cell phone pocket.

I couldn't resist a corny picture with Gregory's Harry Potter doll.

I am attempting to make myself slow down on sewing for a little while - I have some home organizational projects in mind that just need to get done! We'll see how it goes......

Dresden Plate Mini Quilt

Remember when a few weeks ago, I said I was going to take a break from sewing? Well, I lied. I made this the day I wrote that post - I had realized I needed a birthday gift for a friend and here you have it. I have been wanting to try and make a Dresden plate for FOREVER and I definitely think I am hooked. I keep thinking about all sorts of fabric I have that would look great in this design......

Freshcut Charm Square Quilt

This former UFO had been sitting in my closet simply waiting for a binding. I am sending it to a friend who just had a baby girl. Believe it or not, I still have some Freshcut fabric I need to use up. It was the first "modern" collection I had ever discovered and I went a bit overboard.

9 Patch Lattice Quilt Complete!

I finished this quilt a few weeks ago. It was my first attempt at free motion quilting. It was originally intended for Gregory's birthday but now I guess I will save it for a different occastion.

Yard Sale Find

A few weekends ago, I came home with a vintage patchwork quilt. I was really unsure of whether I should buy it. (Nick told Gregory, "Your mommy likes to make quilts but then she goes and buys them.") But I just couldn't leave there in a crumpled heap on the owner's driveway - it didn't hurt that they only wanted $20 for it either. The owner explained that her husband's grandmother had made the top many years ago and about 15 years ago, she had backed it and hand quilted it. The handwork is well done and I love the scrappy look.

It is rather large, you can get a better idea from this picture on how big it is (picture taken just as it fell to the ground).

Even though I love bright, modern colors - I really like older quilts too. I used to browse for old quilt tops on ebay a lot - it's fun to see what is out there.

Horizons Charity Project

Several months ago the NEMQG was asked to make a Boston- themed sports team quilt for a charitable organization. I was quite skeptical about our ability to combine "novelty," "sports themed," and "Boston celtics"- all with a modern style. We used Oh Frannsson's Mix Tape pattern and several members sent me blocks. I was in charge of putting the quilt together and here's how it came out: This results, truthfully, are a bit disappointing. If you look closely - you can notice that the border is really messed up. Somehow, all the rows came out very unevenly and I had to improvise by squeezing two borders in and leaving one out. I need to confess that I put this together very quickly and my 1/4" seams with the sashing may have not been as consistent as they should have been. I also made the mistake of not squaring up all the blocks - slight variations in sizing (due to ironing, seam allowance, etc) may have also made putting this together accurately an impossible task.

I am sending it off to Shelly to longarm quilt it so that it can be ready for the November deadline. Thanks to everyone who sent me blocks - it really is appreciated! We really did have great participation on this project.

Birthday Part II

Blogger drove me nuts on Saturday night - so I ended up leaving out two pictures I had wanted to include.
I love the look of the whales all together: Right before his birthday, I knew I wanted to make him a bib or two. He wore the "#1" bib while he ate his birthday cake.

Amidst all the craziness of making items for Gregory's birthday, I also managed to finish up a few "UFO's" (Unfinished Objects). (The Chelmsford Quilt Guild has challenged us to finish up those projects this year, offering prizes in April - which was part of my motivation). Needless to say, I am pretty tired from doing so much sewing. I have scheduled several posts for the next two weeks but I am going to take a little break from sewing while I have my sister in town.

Tidbit

I had to edit this post to add a quick note: I was very shocked and excited to see that Laurie Wisbrun herself highlighted my Elephant pj's made from her fabric: check it out here.

My mom and I took Gregory to the Topsfield fair and spent most of the time in the petting zoo. They did have an arts and crafts building, but the quilts were hung from a very high ceiling- so I didn't even bother trying to take pictures. In the 4-H building, however, I spotted this beauty created by a talented teenager. If I had discovered modern fabrics when I was in high school- my stash really would be out of control at this point! Checkout this link on the New England Modern Quilt Blog to see my post about our October meeting.

Gregory's Handmade Birthday Presents

My baby turned one today! I feel so grateful for the happiness he has brought to our lives. This child is OBSESSED with these store bought blankets. He received the blue one from a friend at his baby shower and became quickly attached to it. It wasn't long before I decided getting an identical one might be wise. He gets really excited when he gets to drag both of them around.

In an effort to convert him to one of the quilts I have made, I backed his birthday quilt with a "soft and cuddly" fabric from Joann's. The quilt pattern is "Simply Modern Baby Quilt" by Elizabeth Hartman.

I just really love this whale fabric - it's "Urban Zoologie" by Ann Kelle and it became my jumping point for all of his presents.

I didn't get any really great pictures of him wearing his new p.j.'s - but they did come out well and I plan on having him wear them frequently!

Finally, I ended up making him four whale softies. I bought the pattern from a seller on etsy and after making the first one, I decided they were easy enough for me to make a few more with other nautical fabrics:

We had a great day today with lovely weather, a trip to the park, and chocolate cake. What more could anyone ask for?

Deerfield Fair 2010

Last year I missed the Deerfield Fair because I was basically too pregnant to move.... I was NOT going to miss it this year. Here's a few pictures of the quilts on display there:

This one was my fave:

The reverse applique on this leaf quilt was quite impressive!

This Muppet quilt looked very cute - at least the parts of it that I could see. I didn't really understand why they crammed so much on top of some pieces.

Here's Nick and Gregory by the "display" of fire trucks:

Here's Gregory and I at the display of the biggest pumpkins. The one directly behind us was over 1,000 lbs.

I enjoyed the fair but the crowds were out of control - trying to push a stroller around was no easy task. I also felt like more space and attention should've been given to crafters, 4-H, etc. rather than all the vendors and rides. I really like the "old fashioned" elements of a state fair and could pass on the over-emphasis on the commercialism of the event.