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!

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.

Sewing, fabric folding, and fabric covering outlet covers

I've been busy again! A custom order on Etsy for outlet covers, a Halloween lap quilt/wall hanging/doll quilt, a jacket for my high school reunion, fabric folding and styrofoam making pine cones, and more sewing. Let's start with the light switch covers.

A person who had bought one of these from me before wrote and asked for more. Then she wrote to me again and asked if I could make some for her mother! So, I rounded up the last of my M&Ms fabric and some covers, and set to covering. They're fun to do, but do take several days for drying the Mod Podge and vinyl coating between layers. 

I went to Dallas in July and needed a hand sewing project to take with me. My go-to travel project is a hexagon piece or a cathedral window.With Halloween around the corner, I started a small lap quilt which could be a wall hanging, a table runner, a large doll quilt, or whatever. I finished it with receiving blankets as the batting and a Halloween fabric for the backing, and tied each corner with variegate black and variegated orange threads combined.

 

Then it was time for a Halloween jacket for a child. I tried a new pattern and it came out okay, but I made a big mistake. Not on the front.

Not on the back. 

But on the pocket. I lined the jacket, which meant I took a seam allowance that wasn't accounted for with the pattern. Ooops. It's still cute!

I also made a jacket to wear to my 40th high school reunion. I washed it after I made it. Well, I had lined it with receiving blankets (I use them a lot!), and the linking shrank in the dryer while the jacket did not. Argh. Couldn't wear it, so I had to run out and buy something lickety split. The next day, I took all of my receiving blankets and washed them and ran them through the dryer. I won't let that happen again.

And I've been playing with folded fabric. I saw a picture of the pineapple made with folded fabric. I'll post pictures of the group when they are done, but here's the first one:

The second one turned out much nicer and more pine cone shaped.

Lastly, my son moved recently. He left behind the curtains on the windows. They are dark blue and aging somewhat, but perfectly usable. I have an old cutter quilt top that I've been saving and now was the time to put it to use. I cut it into four 8" strips, reinforced all seams with zig-zag stitching as they were hand stitched (rather poorly, too!), stitched them to the tops of the curtains and added ribbon to embellish and hide raw edges. The room is rather bare right now, but there is a bed, bedside table, and nice curtains for our visitor coming for Thanksgiving. 

The quilt on the bed is one I made about 10 years ago out of patriotic fabrics and denim cut in 4" squares. 

I am finishing the  hand sewing on my second twin hexagon quilt top, completing the tying on the Halloween hexagon piece, and have been making a few items of clothing. I've been searching for a vintage Simplicity 8618 pattern for a two-fer top. I found it in a size larger than I need. I will be trying to adjust the paper pattern next week. I have a really tacky knit fabric that would make for a nice, warm, casual top to wear with jeans. 

Lastly, I've collected a couple more pieces of Peter Max fabric and was fortunate to attend a Peter Max exhibit in Richmond, VA a couple weeks ago. 

I think I need more sewing to do!

Quilt done, time to deliver

It started as an idea. I thought I would make a banging hexagon quilt with red, blue, and hot air balloon fabric. Then I thought I'd work it into a log cabin quilt. Then I decided I liked the balloon hexagons too much not to go with that idea, so I combined them. I ended up doing a combined log cabin pineapple type thing with a hexagon in the center.

The solids are Michael Miller Krystal fabrics, so though they are solid, they're not really solid. There will be less chance of discoloration or problems with use and machine washing.

I did incorporate an intentional mistake You can see it in the second picture, but I won't tell you where it is. The tradition of an intentional mistake supposedly began with Native American weavings as a reminder that we are not perfect. I think it adds to the character of the piece! If I really told the truth, this one was unintentional, but I left it anyway; that makes it intentional, right?

I hope the baby gets years and years of use out of the quilt. It's super bright now, but with love, it will fade a bit and will have stories to tell.

The back is a fun snake fabric. The process was quilt-as-you go. The construction is about 90% machine and 10% hand work. I have changed my habit of using batting and now use receiving blankets/flannel as batting. It makes for a warm, but lighter, quilt. It also assists with machine washing and drying as it doesn't shift and is not bulky.

Overall, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Now, what's next?