Follow Up on Fabric and BOM

Above is my completed 'Block of the Month' star made from the pattern provided by Red Hen Fabrics~ it was easier than it looked and I'm excited enough to try my hand at making another one with different colors. Below is the next block for October:

It is mostly half-square triangles, no flying geese, so will be fun to do! 

I also had pictures of my patches pillow I made out of the fabrics in my previous post, however I can't locate them right now when I need them the most, and so I will take more later... 

Below are a few new acquisitions:

Such lovely fabrics, and a few were on sale, too! Though I am itching to put some of this to the test of rotary cutter and machine, I am currently embroiled in a project that is close to my heart. After my grandma passed away, my mom gave me leave to go through some of her clothing to see if there was anything I would want to use for quilting. She and I got to talking while picking things out, and we came up with the idea of making gifts for the daughters grandma had left behind. I don't believe any of aunts are following this blog, and so I will be able to post my journey through creating these pillows. 

Happy quilting to everyone, and keep sane during the season's frantic gift making! (That bit was more for my own sanity than anyone else's.) <3

Autumnal Bliss

    Yes, Autumn has arrived, my birthday is only a few days past, and I am LOVING the crisp air outside in the early mornings. This is the first year that I tried my hand at canning, thanks to my mother's guidance and inspiration via phenomenal pear conserves, ginger and muscadine jelly she sent to us. We are still experiencing a bumper crop of delicious peaches here in Georgia, so I've decided to preserve their summer loveliness for the long winter months ahead, and will also be including them as gifts this year. If you know me, you will be astounded with this pre-planning for the holidays so far in advance. 

   Below are some new fat quarters that I will be making into a simple *squares* pillow for myself, as two of the fabrics were a birthday gift I won at Red Hen Fabrics during their 'Sew-In' last Friday. Yay! Gifties!!!

   Another first for me is joining their Block of the Month club, which I am THRILLED to be a part of! Below are the starring fabrics for the first star- pun intended- and will be called 'Stars Over Marietta' when all of the stars are assembled. The first star is pictured after the next photo. All the squares will be stars of some kind, and so I will be getting loads of practice for this favorite style of mine. 

The Sew-In was truly lovely-- an amazing opportunity to sit and sew and visit with like-minded women who are warm and funny and love what I love-- quilting. One of the ladies who works there, Bo, made delicious Chinese noodles, there was pizza ordered later by Jan, Mary Anne, who is the owner of Red Hen, regaled us with hilarious stories of wedding weather, and through it all we were quilting and admiring each other's efforts. The warmth of company was wonderful, and I did not want to leave! (Alas, I did eventually have to go...) I also received tips from my mentor, Alta, about how to tame the issue with my sewing machine. Lo, it will be a great and fantastic thing if I can continue to free-motion with it and not WAIT until I have to purchase a replacement. I'll keep you posted. 

   Until next time, thank you for your patience between posts. I will also put up progress on the 'Hallow's Eve Harmony' quilt next time, as I have been working on it with a vengeance. Happy stitching, and warm blankets for everyone! 

Army of Safety Pins: Quilt Basted

The Purple and Limelight Log Cabin Baby Quilt (bit of a long name) is now basted with a small army of 105 safety pins. I chose the backing fabric to be brighter than my first choice, as babies aren't big fans of neutral, from my experience. 

I used a new technique for securing the backing down and it worked wonders! Scotch Blue Painter's tape, the kind you use when you want a crisp line in painting, but leaves no residue on the walls, was used in increments all around the edges, securing a very flat backing to my tabletop. I then put down the batting, cut it to size, and then ran the edge of a long quilting ruler over it to remove the wrinkles and bubbles.  Then the top was centered and smoothed by hand, after which the army of safety pins was deployed. 

My fingers hurt now, so I'm going to rest them, and will continue on with the quilting later today. It is amazing  how much actual construction goes on with building a quilt. A very interesting part of the process, albeit the part to me that feels most like work. But good work, lovely work, and totally worth it in the end, sore fingertips and all. 

Update: Log Cabin Purple and Lime Baby Blanket

Just an update, I have finished all of the log cabin blocks for the baby blanket, joined them, and have sewn on the first 1 1/2" light purple sashing as of this morning. There will be a second border made of pale lime green to go around this, and then there will be a dark purple binding. I'm considering appliqueing a small bird in one of the corners. More to come on this, but I am very happy with the the way the stripes have turned out! Very cool, very old pattern! Hope your having a happy Sunday, perhaps with your own quilting projects unfolding! :)

Blue Daisy Crochet

Last week, my sister-in-law stayed with us for several days, as she is awaiting her visa clearance to travel to India, to lay her husband's ashes to rest in the bosom of the mighty Ganges River, as is their Hindu custom.
Her husband's death was sudden, a shock to everyone's system, and for her has left behind an ache that has not yet begun to lessen.

I could not find the right words, and my husband and I could only help her through the paperwork, stand by her while she grieved, and offer whatever condolences we could. She and I shared tears, and we also shared  tiny, shining bits of humor wherever we could find them as the days passed. One of the things I shared with her was a nudge of instruction on how to crochet. When I am stressed or depressed, or juggling both of these emotions, I find that tapping into my creative soul, and finding something for my hands to do so that my brain can work out the bigger stuff in the back of my mind, soothes me in ways that very few other things can do.

Well, she took off with crocheting like a spell had come over her! She picked it up quickly, as her mother- my dearly departed mother-in-law from several years back- used to crochet around her when she was a young girl, but never had the patience to teach her. Now she coiled the yarn around her finger like an old pro, understood immediately what I meant by 'yarn over in the back' or 'only put the hook through the front loop', and with very little effort on my part, her hooks began to fly.

She has since made a few blankets in the granny-square style after mastering single- and double-crochet on scarves. She even made my son a throw that he loves. When she came to stay with us, she saw my gift to my good friend, Kani, sitting there, waiting to be shipped, and was intensely interested in learning how to make the daisy granny-square block.

To make a long story, well...of a medium length... From teaching her this new block, she made me my own little throw pillow which will go up in my girly space in my bedroom.

Above is the front, and below is the back. As you can tell, the blues and greens are one of my favorite color palettes!

 I, in turn, created a smaller lined bag that she can take with her to India, to move her own crochet project from house to house as she re-visits her friends and family to share the grieving of her husband's passing.

Above is the front, below is the back and closeup of the button and loop closure.

I lined her bag as well, so that no hooks or small tools could fall out. She had already begun to stash some of her balls of yarn as pictured... 

From tragic ending, then, comes a glimmer of peace, and from one of her creations after another comes a semblance of hope, of future, to remind us all that the end may not be as final as it feels at first.

This post is dedicated to my 'Didi' (which means sister in Bengali), Sarmila. May the Gods and Goddesses bless you and look over you and your family on your journey to bring Partho back home. We love you.

Purple and Green Log Cabin Baby Quilt

Purple and green/chartreuse... colors I have long wanted to put together in one quilt, and now, I have begun!  I picked up some perfect colors in fat 1/8ths at the fabric store, added them to my existing stash, and came up with this color combination. 

I'll be 'stair stepping them in the above manner, working with 8X8 blocks, going three across and four down to make a sweet baby blanket. The blocks are moving along faster than I thought, as I am using my brand new toy...er, tool! ... designed by Jean Ann Wright called the 'Log Cabin Trim Tool'. It is working like a charm to keep my blocks centered. More to come soon! 

Crochet Lined Daisy Handbag

Okay, so I have taught someone else the joy of crocheting: my sister-in-law. And while teaching her, I was bit with the bug to work on something myself. She started, as I did, with granny squares, and here I have taken them to a sweet new level, having seen this square pattern on Pinterest. I did alter it, however, as my yarn is a bit thicker than the original, I think.

I started out making a pillow, but changed my mind as a friend's birthday loomed on the horizon. She had knitted me a couple of very sweet scarves, and has been regaling me with how she loves knitting with her group. I therefore set out to make her a tote that she can carry some yarn and knitting tools in. 

This is the back:

Here is a peek inside at the liner which I hand-sewed in place. 

I wanted the colors of the fabric to be fun, summery, and to echo the colors of the outside. The pockets were made to fit knitting needles, etc, while the rest is open for maximum yarn storage. 

I adored making this bag, and will be making more to sell on Etsy soon... 

Finished Triforce Quilt

Oh, yeah, baby!... And it was done ahead of time!

This is the backing, formed of strips to represent the levels of dungeons in the Ocarina of Time video game of the Legend of Zelda: Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow and Spirit (desert) temples. 

The binding is simply the edge piecework from the back flipped over onto itself and sewn into place. 

The quilting inside the Triforce triangles echoes the shape. 

I sketched several items from the game into the quilting using my free-motion BigFoot quilting foot, which worked very well. I was so excited about how well these turned out! Below is the Light Arrow on the right, and a Deku Nut down in the corner on the left. 

It's so good to have this sweet little quilt washed and on my son's bed. We both love it equally! <3

Birthday WIP

I have pulled this quilt (slightly smaller than a twin, larger than a throw) off the hoop, and have been working to machine-quilt it to the end, to be able to present it to my son who is turning 13 in seven days. He's watched me working on it for about four or five years, and we both know... it's time. PAST time.

I had grand ideas of hand-quilting the entire blanket, which sports a 'TriForce' symbol, indicative of the Legend of Zelda video game series-- a series he and I have shared since he was a very little boy. But alas, given the size of the project, I only hand-quilted the center blue triangle (detailed photos to come) and found it extremely difficult to pick it up enough over the course of time to believe I could hand-quilt the entire thing before my son turned 30. Or maybe even 50. It has pained me to know that it's been incomplete for so long, as he watches my many other projects come and go through the sewing machine. So I have turned my focus sharply upon getting this finished, with the new-found skills I have only recently been using for machine-quilting.

I'll keep the blog updated as it is such a dramatic race against time. Here in my head, at any rate. Time to thread that golden bobbin...

Dressmaker?

Call it inspirational to have my honorary niece, Bethany, in the house for the weekend, but something grabbed hold of me and would not let go until I had made her a dress. Keep in mind, the only clothing I have ever made was crocheted and from a pattern... and made many years ago. Still, I had been eyeing all these lovely little, simple-looking sundresses online and in the fabric stores, and something in my head kept whispering... 'You can make one of those...'

So I did! I had the perfect model, a very slight-of-build, patient, color-loving and adventurous young lady at my disposal, and when I asked her if she would like a dress made for her, she lit up like the sun! She and I sat down with many choices of fabrics, and slowly leaned towards aquas and greens, which she assured me she loved. I let her pick out coordinates, suggesting slightly here and there... and VOILA!

(Disregard the garbage can in the background. I was so excited to be finished that I didn't set up the shot properly.)

Below is a glimpse of the back. I gave her two buttons to ensure that she will be able to wear it for many years to come.

The bow ties nicely! I was happy to see that I'd made the straps long enough! Below is a glimpse of the hem~ It was her choice to use this fabric over the darker batik in the yoke, and I'm so glad she picked it- it worked out beautifully! Dig her flip-flops! :)

I have to give Miss Bethany a BIG shoutout for being so patient with the process, for being such a gracious recipient and model, and also for sharing her time with us this past weekend. It was really special to have her in our home. We love you Bethany!  

Star Pillow

I know, you thought I wasn't quilting anything currently, right? :)  Last December or so, I took a machine piecing quilt class at Red Hen Fabrics, and the instructor, Alta, taught us how to decipher the 'quilt by number' approach to using a machine pieced pattern. The result: It makes relatively easy work out of a pattern that looks incredibly complicated! I loved learning how to do this, though as a beginner, it was very time-consuming. The resulting star pillow, however, is one of my favorites!

I have also been playing with a new quilting foot for my machine, for free motion quilting, though above is done with straight stitch using Sulky variegated thread. Fun colors! 

The back is made from an old, soft sheet and a strip of these fantastic metallic little stars I've had for years...been waiting for a perfect reason to use them again! 

I made my first 'sketched stars' with the free motion foot, detailed below. I also made a meandering stipple-type pattern for the dark part of the star square. 

With its insert, the pillow is soft and comfy, and now everyone will think I'm a quilt star genius. Well, except for those of you who have read this. I will definitely try machine piecing again in the future...

Done and Done!

All in all, I'm very please with the Mother's Day flower! I really liked writing on it, putting that personal touch to it, and embroidering the french knots in the center. I found I had more control over the binding by doing by hand instead of machine. It came out well, and now I just sit and wait to see what she thinks of it. 

Here is the full piece hanging on the wall...

The binding looks more wonky here than it actually was, but I wasn't striving for perfection, believe me. Just wanted it to have that touch of 'art'. I'll update this post once she receives it. :)