This is a static export of a blog I put on ice many years ago, that still has personally relevant content. No promises can be made around linkrot, styles, or working functionality.
My latest quilt is being shipped off this weekend, so its debut here will have to wait until it arrives. In the mean time, I dug into my stash today for a small gift for that quilt recipient’s sister. I still had a few bits and pieces left over from the quilt I made her in 2012—the Impressions Baby Quilt—so I thought it high time to round out her gifts with a doll quilt (prop Vermont Teddy Bear not included).
It was an extraordinarily fast project; all the half-square triangle blocks were already sewn up and sitting in my scrap bin from the original quilt piecing, waiting to be stitched up into something. Finished size is 15″×20″.
A scrap of 80/20 batting and a bit of stashed cuddle-type fabric that’s cut edge shed so much I’m amazed there’s still fabric finished up the quilt sandwich. I quilted it with just a few straight lines following the HST seams, which is how the larger quilt was quilted. I bound it with more scraps from the line that were already conveniently cut into 2.5″ strips.
More of my stash was busted and one little girl won’t be so sad when her baby sister receives a package next week. That’s not too shabby for an hour or so on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
With the emergency surgery needed for one quilt, I didn’t manage to finish the quilt for my friend’s soon-to-be-born daughter. I knew I needed something quick that would go with it, since we flew down to visit and attend her shower, so out came my trusty copy of Simplicity 2613.
The quilt uses Heather Ross’ Nursery Versery fabric (among others) and Nido was having a sale, so I picked up extra for this project. I had a bit of yarn and large rickrack that coordinated for the ossicones and tufts of hair on the neck.
It rattles, thanks to some sort of plastic capsule I had around and pearled barley from my cupboard.
Once I finished the stuffed giraffe, I thought the gift needed a little something more, so I grabbed a FQ of another Nursery Versery print (that will also be the backing of the baby quilt), paired it with a pale yellow and white flannel (backing) and pink linen (binding) from my stash, and made a whole-cloth doll quilt to match.
She’s not due until April, so I still have time to finish up the quilt, but I’m happy to have made these accessories in time.
My mom and younger sisters are visiting, so my projects are on the back burner in favor of time spent with them. 2013 was the first year in my life that I didn’t step foot in my home state of Missouri, so I’m thrilled that they came to VT despite the horrendous weather across the country this week.
Books have been a theme this trip and my oldest younger sister is a voracious reader, so I stole a bit of time this morning to round out her holiday gifts with a quick sewing project.
This bookmark matches the quilt I made her a few months ago. I sneakily picked up the turtle charm from the Danforth Pewter store when we were shopping yesterday, and added in a couple of beads that I’ve had for years. There are two layers of stabilizer inside to give it a bit of rigidity, and I whipped out rusty macrame skills on embroidery floss for the tassel.
My email archive tells me that the class to make this box was last September; it’s about time I finished it up! It was a free class at the Viking Sewing Gallery, and the project was meant to demo the decorative stitches and a new foot. I didn’t use the fancy foot, but my box turned out well enough.
It’s basically just a 8.5″ cube with no top. The sides are quilted to the batting, with a floating lining. The project was on the Husqvarna Viking site at one point, but since they redid everything, I can’t find it.
When I started it, it was a great stash buster that allowed me to use up the ends of various thread spools for the fancy stitched parts. I pulled the other fabrics out of my stash as well, thinking it would be a great accessory to a future quilt. I still think it will be, but no quilt is in the works yet. I did find the stack of fabrics, though—it was my collection of Savannah Bop that had gone missing in my sewing room a few weeks back.
I finished the decorative stitches and piecing for the outside (including quilting) in the class or soon after. It’d just been sitting around waiting to be assembled ever since. I don’t know why I waited so long—it took less than 20 minutes to finish up.
I know of at least one baby quilt that needs to be made later this year, so perhaps it will go to those expecting parents. Regardless, it is nice to have yet another finished project from the WIP cubbies.
I certainly seem productive lately! I guess that is the advantage of finally tackling my collection of almost-abandoned projects.
Every project has a story, but this one is more dear to me than most. It starts with a sewn tube of fabric that once contained cardboard, used to stiffen the base of a Vera Bradley bag.
Said bag was a gift to my youngest sister (Kaite) from our grandmother, who passed away last summer. It came into my possession via our other sister over Christmas—it was the only part of the bag that survived the fire that destroyed most of their possessions right before Thanksgiving.
Unpicked, it measured about 8.5″×16″, and miraculously had two full centered repeats of the main pattern. Perfect for a small zip bag with a boxed bottom, when paired with a mottled brown lining fabric from my stash and a couple of hardware pieces.
The dumb luck of the repeats meant that I was able to cut a matching front and back, making awesome matching patterns in the seams. I struggle to do this when I have a lot of fabric to work with—I’m still in awe that I managed with such a small amount of fabric.
It’s hard to imagine that this bag’s fabric started life as an odd little flat insert in another bag, but I hope its new life suits Kaite well.
I’ll find out soon… I’m on my way to pick her up from the airport as this post goes live!
Sat and sewed this quick hanging from Fons and Porter Celebrations earlier this week with a group of other ladies. Nothing special, just some fusible applique and some very simple quilting. Trying to finish up the binding over lunch here at work.
Found out that my walking foot and tulle don’t play that well together, but it’s an otherwise fine project.
Here’s another quick project from a Viking class earlier this week. It’s a two-hand pot holder mitt. Frankly, I’m not entirely sure how well it would work out (especially since it’s overkill for anything we can fit into our toaster oven, being oven-less and all). I keep thinking I’d manage to burn myself somehow, or drop the pan, or something. It could make an interesting trivet, perhaps?
But, it was nice to get out and sew with some other ladies for an evening.
I’d forgotten I was on the waiting list for the class, so I hadn’t planned out fabrics or anything. I got a call rather last minute, so I ran home after work, grabbed what coordinating fabrics I could, and headed to class. The leftover strips are from the Designer Roll I used on the recent baby quilt and the background fabric is the closest coordinating fabric I had a half-yard of. Luckily, I had a strip of Insulbright the right width left over from some project I don’t even recall at the moment. It doesn’t match any of my decor. I think it may be destined for the club’s quilt show’s boutique next year.
Oh my, did the free motion part send everyone into a tizzy. Most of them were new to the concept (even the long-arm quilter in the class was scared of doing it on a domestic!) I tried to explain to them that mine only looked ok because that is the absolute one design I actually know how to FMQ, since it’s what I do on anything that I FMQ, but I don’t think they believed me.
Have you ever used one of these double-handed mitts? Do you like them?
I’m still working on quilting Carl’s gift. I’m trying to work on denser quilting (when called for), but the tradeoff is that it is taking hours and hours to do, and my non-ergonomic space means my back can only take so much at a time. I think I hit the official 2⁄3 finished point last night. In the mean time, here is another quick project I made recently. This was another class at the Viking Gallery sometime in June, but I just finished hand-sewing down the binding last night.
We’ve been doing a lot of work on the house, but we clearly haven’t gotten around to sanding and repainting the porch…
It is a case for a travel iron—be it for quilting/crafting or hair styling. The trick is that it has a layer of Insul-Bright so that you can put the hot iron in the pouch and go—no need to wait for it to cool down.
I needed a break from quilting my latest project, so I packed up my machine and went to a class at the local Viking Gallery. We made this simple zippered travel wallet.
I found myself in need of a pair of small storage bags this evening. With a few charms of Etchings (that I don’t actually remember buying… hmmm.) and a couple of inches of Velcro, I managed to fulfill that need very quickly (in under 20 minutes, I think). Here’s how…
