Robin's mom's quilt is done

A few days ago, I posted that I was working on a friend's mother's quilt and showed you the back. I finished it today. The binding is done!

That's me peeping over the top. It's hard to see the detail of the handkerchiefs, but it is beautiful in design and heart. I'll be handing it over to my friend tomorrow.

I'm tying my hexagon quilt when I have time and working on a denim quilt of hexagon flowers for myself. In the meantime, I have my eye on a culotte's pattern I want to try and will probably make a coordinating top to go with.

I'm not retired. I still work, but maybe 30 hours a week. It's been great to rediscover my sewing projects and to complete another one is just magnificent.

My next big project will be making 100 tote bags for the parents and children of Child Development Resources. I have been trying to figure out how to destash without just giving away yards of fabric again and the parents can use the bags with their kids for trips to the library. I did this one time in the past and look forward to my stack growing. I have SO MUCH fabric! 100 16"x 18" bags might make a dent! By the way, their the best and if you ever have a dollar to spare, they can always use donations of any kind, be it money or time or whatever. Okay, enough shameless plugging.

Keep sewing!

Sewing in June

I've had a couple projects going for a while - a friend's mom's quilt and one last quilt for myself. They're still in progress, but I'm ready to share some of it with you.

My friend's mom approached me toward the end of her life and asked me to "help her finish" a quilt. She wanted to make one out of handkerchiefs she's received over the years, some of them from her aunt. I said, "sure, let me see what you have." Out came a hat box filled with handkerchiefs sort of pinned together. Right about there, I asked if I could just make it for her. It took her 2 shakes of a monkey's butt to agree. We were visiting her in Florida at the time and I said I'd take them home with me, find a complementary fabric to go with the handkerchiefs, and get started. She asked me to give it to her daughter if she was not around to see it. On the drive home from Florida, I asked my friend if we could stop at Walmart on the way home, knowing that I had seen some sky fabric that would be just perfect there. So we did and I bought it. They didn't have much, so I wrote to the manufacturer and they sent me some more.

I've been doing a quilt-as-you-go method for this one and yesterday, put on the last row. It's ready now for the hand stitching on the back I have it pinned and should get that done in a day or so. The back is not a pretty sight, but it is what it is as they say.

Today, I made the binding and got it all rolled up. I do not use bias binding with quilts as there are no round edges to navigate. This is a 3" wide binding and I'll hand apply it as well.

I suspect in a couple weeks, this one will be done and delivered! I'll show off the front when I'm done.

As you might already know, I'm addicted to hexagons. I like to have a portable sewing project, and they fit the bill perfectly. I'm working now on what I deemed to be our last quilt. Yeah, right. I've made hexagon flowers with the same fabric for the centers, 9-patch denim squares (using 4" squares), and will be using a 2" spacer between the blocks. I'm not very excited to match up corners and with the spacer/sashing, I don't have to. Here are some in-progress pics:

Hand stitched flowers using English piecing.

One flower attached to a 9-patch with sashing attached. 

A couple of squares sewn together to begin a row.

Stack of 9-patch denim squares ready to embellish.

I have a beautiful piece of fleece for the back and will stitch the rows one at a time onto that as I go. This is a great way to use up old denim regardless of whether you do a hex flower on it or not.

So, that's my sewing for June. I hope you all have something going on as well. Sew on, my friends!

Busy!

It's been a busy time in the sewing room. It seems like there's always something to mend or to create or fabric that just needs to be looked at one more time.

My sister recently moved in with us and the sewing room is filled to the brim with boxes. Two days ago, I mentioned to my husband that I needed to create a path to the sewing machine and ironing board, that I was having withdrawal! We spent a productive 15 minutes moving things around, and voila! I was in business again.

I finished some brain and blood spatter potholders:

and started to work on a denim project I have going.

I took a quick inventory of my UFOs hanging around - a quilt for a friend's mother, a vest I've been designing; and some items recently finished - a doll outfit and vest made of M&Ms fabric, and realized I need to step it up!

There is always sewing that needs to be done. Or is there sewing that I want to do? Is there a difference?

The bottom line is that I'm glad I have access to my machine and have 1,000 ideas of what I want to put together.

Here's hoping your spring is filled with sewing ideas!

Quick denim quilt tutorial, part 1

Cut yourself a bunch of squares out of recycled denim. We used six 4" squares for the tutorial to give you the basics. I recommend at least 6" squares for a lap or full sized quilt. Precise cutting is the key to everything. You'll be happy later if you take time to do this part right.

Put one square right side up.

Place a second square right side down on top of the square above.

Using your presser foot to measure seam allowance as shown in the picture, stitch these two together. At the beginning and the end, do a forward and reverse stitch or two to secure the line of stitching.

Place the two squares right side up.

Place one square right side down on the end of the first set of sewn squares.

Stitch this square down as above, securing with a forward and reverse stitch on the ends. 

This is what it looks like when turned over. Use as many squares as you like to make a row. 

You remember your iron, right? You're about to use it.

Turn your row right side down. 

Press the seams open with a hot iron. 

When you've done all the seams, turn the row right side up and iron from the top to give it an extra oomph to keep the seams open. Repeat with all rows. 

Place an ironed row right side up.

Place a second row right side down on the first row.

Match the seams. Try to match the seam and not the seam allowance. 

Pin on the left side of the seam to hold. Repeat with all squares in the row. Don't worry if there's a little give in the squares. 

Start at one end (forward and reverse) and stitch the two rows together until you get to the seam/pin. You can stretch the squares a skosh with your hands if there was a little give. The goal is to not have pinches of fabric, especially at the seams. If you cut them precisely, you should be fine. 

Take the pin out and hold the seam in place by hand. Go very slowly here. The fabric is thick. 

Stitch the seam intersection together...

Go forward, backward, and forward again to double reinforce the seam joint.

Seam done. Repeat as often as necessary with rows. you can do two rows, then two rows, then two rows, etc. to make handling easier, then stitch the sections of two rows together. 

Take this to the ironing board and place it right side down.

Press the new seam open with high heat, paying attention to the intersections of seams. Go slowly. It pays to do it right the first time. 

Here is the wrong side pressed. 

Turn it over and press again. 

Your quilt top is now made. 

How to add backing and tie the quilt will be in part 2 of the tutorial. Now, go make a quilt!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

My daughter's friend is getting married. My daughter being the poor, starving graduate student that she is asked if we could collaborate. She sent me a wonderful picture of her friend after a run with her fiance. We'll call that something borrowed. I decided to print it and pair it with some beautiful sky fabric I have. Something blue! I had the pillow front planned.

I asked my daughter how her friend's home was decorated. She said, "Well, it's colorful!" That made me remember my small collection of cutter quilts. Something very, very old. I wanted to accent the colors and brighten them up, so I grabbed some white bias tape I had on hand. If had not had the bias tape I would have made strips the way I do with pie potholders. The bias part is not important for my pillow. When I applied the white on the colorful patchwork, I also added a piece of fabric as a lining since the quilt itself is pretty old. This will give it some longevity as the patchwork piece will not be pushed and pulled in all directions; the lining will. There are directions all over the internet for prairie points. Everyone makes them their own way. I fold a 2" square, then fold it again on the diagonal and call it a point.

So, what's the something new? The pillow.

Here it is with the points pinned on and the back with the patchwork pieces framed. I made the back a little larger than the front to give me some design flexibility. 

You can kind of see the decorative stitching around the picture itself. The points turned out beautifully. I might make them out of 3" squares next time. 

And here's the back. I love these old cutter quilt tops. I hate to think of them getting dusty and being unused in someone's attic. We can bring some life to them if we give them a second chance. My hints include reinforcing the seams as many are hand sewn and not very sturdy and to line any piece you use to keep it alive a little longer. As mentioned, with this pillow, I used a lining and then did the bias tape stitching. It just about pops when you see it in person; the colors which once seemed a tad dull on their own are bright as can be with the white framing. 

 And so, the pillow is made. I think I love it!

Sewing & pattern fun

Just a diversion on another cold and icky day.

I love the animated patterns:

http://andreasnotebook.com/2014/12/hilarious-moving-sewing-pattern-gifs.html

And the behavior associated with vintage patterns explained here cracks me up (there is some cussing!):

http://mccallspatternbehavior.tumblr.com/

And then, there's always the sewing cat:

http://giphy.com/gifs/cat-sewing-machine-jItCZmN1Hgty

Another dress from heck and vacation sewing

About 2 years ago, I cut out a dress from Smurfs material. It's a size 5/6 for little girls. I thought it would be fun to put together, embellish, and possibly sell. I started sewing it together and saw that the fabric had some small blue blotches here and there. Argh. I got mad at it and put it away. Did I mention the dress has a zipper and I hate zippers? Argh again.

I pulled it out before vacation in February and decided it was time to finish it. Two years was long enough to get over being mad at the fabric. Peter Pan collar, a bodice to which I could add some trim, and what a cute dress it was turning out to be. A friend had given me a zipper and I put it in as best I could. Then it broke. The derned zipper broke.

Off to the store with me. I was determined by now and bought a zipper for the stupid dress. Before I could sew it in, I had to rip out the other one without ruining the back of the dress. I've mentioned before this is my favorite sewing tool:

I got it out and went to work. One stitch at a time, then two and three, and finally, got it out without too much damage. I was happy to throw the broken zipper away. It gave me a feeling of power. Take that, zipper!

The new zipper went in okay and I added a little hook at the top of it to provide full closure. I had asked my nieces to get me some arm measurements from their daughters, so that made finishing the sleeves possible. Last came the hem. Easy peasy as I was going to add trim anyway. Whirrrrr on the machine. Honesty, I don't think I hate it anymore! But I can't sell it. I messaged my niece on Facebook last night and asked if her daughter/s could wear this size, and yes, they can! I packaged it up and mailed it off to Texas this morning. I even included extra trim in case she can use it for their hair or something. So, how did it turn out?

I hope the girls love it.

While I was on vacation, I started a small lap quilt. I took the white and red fabric with me, but my poor sister had to go to the fabric store to pick out the green. She is the one who found just the right green! There's more to come on this one; I never go out of town without my hand sewing.

It's a lot further along now, but this is how it begins.