A Leaner Year

Getting all that baby stuff done in 2012 was a reminder that once on the sewing wagon, things usually are fun and progress much faster than I had imagined.  But in my life sewing time has it's ups and downs.  The ups result in unfinished works laying helter skelter all over my studio.  The downs are when I walk into my studio and can't initiate anything because of the chaos. I guess the organizational side of me always wins over the creative.  UNLESS there is motivation to finish - like the grandbaby's due date, a big social event.  You get the idea.

So on this New Year I look over my accomplishments since the last post.  I do actually keep a list of project completed each year (organizational side again) so let's see….

Marin wanted a specific dress to wear for Owen's first birthday.  She described it, we found a pattern that would work and then looked for fabrics.  The result!?  A chevron navy and white halter dress - very nautical and she looked great in it.

Marin with family and in-laws

The pattern is McCalls M6745, Riley Blake "Chevron"cotton print, Kona Solid White, navy piping.

The skirt was supposed to be pleated and the pattern cut in more of a "circle".  I had to adapt it to a straight line pleat, and was pleasantly surprised that the zigs lined up with the zags and it worked out!

I didn't actually complete any quilt projects last year.  I see that I several tops underway that are still waiting to be quilted YEARS later.  Where does the time go?  I've made several baby items, and pieced a few tops. This better be the finishing year.  Here is a project I am working on from the scraps from owens' baby quilt.

I'd like this to be a large floor pillow for Owen to flop on to read books in his room.  I am using this Floor Pillow tutorial as a guideline for putting it together with the leftover 2.5" strips.

That's all for now - wishing you a year of completions too!

Liz

Baby on the Brain October 2012

I was writing this post in October, after grandbaby Owen arrived, and finally after a "pregnant" pause I thought I ought to post it!

There are a lot of wonderful tutorials and ideas online for making things for babies.  Pinterest is a great place to gather and save ideas for later, or to a website that provides a tutorial or pattern for an idea. Often you don't even need a pattern you can just "wing it" and it comes out fine.  I made Bapron bibs using the tutorial from Craftiness Is Not An Option's blog. They were fun and easy to make.  I recently purchased a new sewing machine with an embroidery option.  I tried it out, and didn't want the sample to go unused, so I turned it into a bib. And also took some rectangles of fabric used in my baby quilt, added some chenille backing and had a couple easy burp cloths.  It surprised me how quick it is to make these items - and how much you pay for them in the retail store!

Winging It.... you don't really need a pattern for these bibs and burp cloths.

 Flannel recieving blankets and a nursing cover (aka Hooter Hider)!

MissouriQuiltCo's You Tube video for receiving blanket

 Pacifier Clips

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/10/october-14-pacifier-clip-tutorial-sophie-lili-giveaway/

And....

Play Mat - Using "layer cake" coordinated fabrics by Moda

Stichery Dickory Dock design by Amy Gibson

Even baby Owen likes it!

Lost In Time

I opened my blog today and realized that I had not posted for an entire year! WHAT? I never considered myself one to write in a diary or keep a journal.  I guess that much is obvious to you too!  But now that my grandson  is born I have been more inspired to sew.  And sew things I have not even considered in decades. First on the list was the baby quilt. Hmmm. I got paint swatches from the kids and some ideas on the concept of the room.  The nursery had grey walls, and they decided to add one accent wall in argyle. So I started looking at different quilt patterns. I finally settled on a pattern by Teri Christopherson, Black Mountain Quilts called BABY CAKES.  This gave me an argyle look and I modified the pattern to three blocks across and four down to give me a better crib size. It is approximately 46 x 58".  This is a nice size for transition later into a toddler bed.

And then of course you have to see it in context.  Here is the nursery - ready to go. And the quilt was done on time too! I guess by now you've noticed that there are some Seahawks fans in this household.

Fat Quarter Star Quilt-A-Long next installment

On the Fat Quarter Star Quilt Along we get a new star pattern every two weeks. I signed up to do this so that it would help push me along into starting some new projects.  Here are the last two blocks I made. I added some blue scrap fabrics to the mix, colors which I pulled out of the apple print that is the inspiration fabric. Block 3 really required a few more colors to get the total effect of the pattern.  Now that I've done this I may rework Block 2 to make it a bit more dynamic. I've never made a quilt project where I didn't have the entire picture at the beginning. It will be an interesting exercise to make it so each block will play well with the others.

Block 2 - "Friendship Twist"  Designed by Carrie Graziano
http://cricketsstudio.blogspot.com

Block 3 - Friendly Winds Designed by Mary Lou Casada
http://www.cheaperthantherapyquilting.blogspot.com/

!

Fat Quarter Star Quilt-A-Long

This summer has been amazingly full and busy. But alas, no quilting time at all.  I brought Mr. Seamweaver home from a hip replacement surgery on Monday and was sure I'd have some quiet time at home.  I joined up with the Fat Quarter Quilt A Long,  mostly to prod myself back into a routine of being at the sewing machine- and to use some fabric stash that has been sitting way to long.   Today I finally got the fabric out and made my 1st block.

Fabrics from stash

Block 1 - "Heart of the Matter" Designed by Konda Luckau
http://www.moosequilts.blogspot.com

This is a quilt a long where 12 different people design a block and everyone makes it. It's also a way to get me into a routine of blogging more often.  We'll see how that goes!  I had pulled fabric for at least 3 projects today, which is pretty darn good.  But I am also still working on a few that are mentioned in previous posts.

Fabric Portrait Quilts

Recently I was skimming through some blogs and found this one,  http://sweetleafnotes.blogspot.com/2009/04/fabric-portrait-resources-what-ive.html  - a great resource Michelle gathered on fabric portrait quilting.  I also took the Realistic Fabric Portrait class with Marilyn Belford through Quilt University (online).  This has inspired me to start flipping through some portraits to do another. Its such fun to see it come alive in fabric.  Here is the inspiration snapshot, and the final quilt, the subject was my grandmother who passed away in 2000.



It was my first attempt at anything realistic like this, so I tried to keep it simple.  I did not include the hand or cane, rather focusing on the head. Today I am pulling some fabrics for a simple border on one side and then very simple quilting and binding. There is a lot of top stitching on this type of piece and I personally don't think it needs a lot of quilting too. I started this quilt about 5 or 6 years ago and I think its time to finish it, and maybe start another?

Small Blog Meet

I've linked up with Lynne at Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet which gives all us bloggers with less than 50 followers the opportunity to get noticed! If you are stopping by from Lily's Quilts, THANK YOU! and please leave a comments so I can visit your blog too!

Contemplating the Quilting...

I finished the top of this little quilt while in Arizona.  I am contemplating how I'll quilt it.  Most likely using my sewing machine since it is so small.  The pattern is from Lori Smiths book  Fat Quarter Quilting and is 16" x 20". Or I could do it by hand, but then it would probably be a year before it hung on the wall!! VBG!

Wedding Season

It is so exciting to have two weddings in one year!  I made these bags for Marin and her bridesmaids, but couldn't post until after she had given them out at rehearsal dinner.  Marin chose the fabrics to coordinate with her colors of yellow and grey.  We bought the bag pattern on Etsy from Sweet Pea Totes .  The bags were fun and quite easy to make.

Mom's Fantasy

I really find it difficult to name a quilt.  It doesn't come easy to me, and often I just call it by the pattern name. This quilt I made for my mother and asked her what to call it. I believe she replied Mom's Fantasy.  So there you have it.  This is a queen size quilt based on the Cindy Hayes pattern called Vanity Square.  My sister had traveled to India several years ago and surprised me with many yards of indian dyed cottons.  I used these cottons, combined with batiks and printed cottons for an eclectic mix. It is machine pieced and then quilted on my HQ16.  Mom really liked this pattern so I decided it would be the one for her bed.  I'm very happy with how it looks on my guest bed.  It's very rich looking and will probably look even better on her bed with it's unique headboard.

Quilt Shop In A Box

As we were driving north for three days, I carried my little box of quilting supplies in the back seat.  Marlin called it my quilting store in box!  It's a three tier box that snaps together.  The first layer is quilting supplies, the second layer spools of thread, and the last is a handwork project I can do anywhere.  Small, compact and easy to pickup anytime.  These are small 1/2" hexagons that I am paper piecing with silk dupioni and one cotton print fabric. The paper pieces are die cut and come 125 to a package.  I don't really have a design plan yet, I figured it would come along when I'd had enough of the paper pieces! I was inspired by my friend Jovita's silk hex's.

Elisabeths' Garden  Hand sewn by Jovita Goldschmidt

Turquoise Jewel

I finally finished up Lara's quilt - Turquoise Jewel. Lara chose the fabrics about 3-4 years ago for this queen size quilt, but didn't have a queen size bed!  She's moving in to her apartment this week and will now have that bed. Timing is everything.

This quilt was made from a Kaffe Fassett pattern, machine pieced and quilted on my HQ16. I've included a close up of the quilting, and also wanted to show the pretty back. It could be a reversible quilt!

The Garden House

Our wonderful Garden House has been built. Of course it still needs some painting and quite a bit of landscaping but all in good time. I'm storing garden tools in there now,and  it's so convenient. I'm looking for a great work table and some shelving and we'll be in business. It is very light and airy inside with the high center roof constructed of clear polycarbonate and the lower roofs are done with a "rusting" corrugate metal, huge windows and french doors.

Our Fantasy Building

We purchase 2 sets of windows and a set of french doors from various salvage yards in the are to be used in our new garden house. The garden house will be a 10 x 20 ft building divided into three parts and built for fun and fancy. In other words it is not strictly utilitarian and hopefully will be an enjoyable place to pot plants, quilt, or read. One end will house the garbage/recycle and lawnmower, a central portion will be a potting area with a sink, garden tools, seed packets etc. You get the idea. And then a general purpose room.

We decided to use recycled windows and doors to add to the charm of the building. We did find some good ones, with almost a cottage appeal but the paint was horrid and peeling, and it was certainly a labor of love.

Fall is here! Time to sew

With a change in weather comes a change in activities. I look forward each Fall to some time indoors with the sewing machines, fabric, and occasional craft project. I have a long list of things I'd like to finish, which I always feel pressure to complete before beginning something new. This year Lara is here and also eager to create. Soon I'm hoping to begin a craft day with my girls where we can share and try new ideas, or just hang out and sew together. My sewing room has yet to be "organized", but what the heck. Maybe it's time to dive in and just use it, organization can be done on the fly.
Last week I dug out my sewing machine, the serger and uncovered the quilting machine. Now we've used the serger and I've loaded a practice top on the quilting machine to test the tensions and threads, and practice a bit. Learning to quilt on a home longarm machine is not an easy task! It does require practice, and patience, and trying lots of different things to find the best method to proceed. I like it to opening tubes of acrylic paint and expecting to paint a masterpiece first try. Not going to happen! But I'm committed to learning this, a little bit at a time!

Fantasy Buildings

The house is done with it's remodeling and now it's time to finish the garden house! I've been exploring sites to get further ideas on how to create this fun building. I'd like to use recycled materials for as much as possible to give it a unique style. Here's a unique outhouse we found while out sailing. Some people are so clever! I guess I'll start my search with old windows and doors, but some nautical theme items would be good too.

Spring Again

It's spring again, about the same time I started this blog a year ago. What a year it has been. I took a long break shortly after our remodel began, just couldn't keep up with everything. We are in the home stretch now though. I'm looking forward to spring, the new gardens, the new baby cows and lambs that I see in the pastures, the sunshine, and the smell of the fresh mown lawn everywhere. I'm attaching a picture of the eggs I picked up at our local farm. I love the different colors!

Fall is in the Air

Fall is definitely here bringing the shorter days, cooler nights and wrapping up the summer garden harvest. Our remodel has begun, note the lovely sanican in the background. And we can turn our attention back to winter things like sewing and blogging. I am anxious to attend the local QuiltFest in two weeks... I have managed to miss all the summer quilt shows in the area this year. I plan to pack up my sewing machine and a few small projects that I can do in the next 6 months while most of my sewing area is packed up... again. Maybe knowing that there are only 2 or 3 projects available will help me focus! Now, stop laughing!

Where to go next?

This is a fun map to note the places you've traveled in the USA. There are a few more states I've been in, but just travelling through so I did not mark them as visited! I was surprised.


create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

June

June is such a busy month, a lot of birthdays, father's day, school graduations, and what we all look forward to each year, the beginning of summer. This year has been slow to get summery! The weather is the intitial topic of any conversation, vying with gas prices for whose on top. With the encouragement of my neighbor, Carol, I have a raised vegetable garden this year. It's been fun to see it grow, although at times painfully slow growing. I've encountered a new garden pest that I never had before - the snail! And let me tell you they are NOT slow. In one evening they can wipe out an entire crop of lettuce. With all the rain we've been having the foliage is always damp and there are great places for the snail to play. Saturday I was on a mission and collected an entire gallon ziploc bag full of the little nibblers. I'm hoping that this mission will save my lettuce until I can at least enjoy one salad!
This is an experimental year for my garden, and it's certainly a labor of love.