Finishes

Yes I know it's almost February and everyone else did their 2013 round-up blog weeks ago. Better late than never? It does feel good to look back on the year and realize how much has been accomplished. Sometimes it seems like I have a dozen projects going at once and none will ever be finished. Anyway, today the weatherman says we may get a tiny bit of snow here in Atlanta, so it seemed like a good day to stay inside (away from all the Southerners that never learned how to drive on snow and ice) and cozy up with the computer and a bunch of photos.
First off, I had a few projects that have been sitting around for a long time waiting to be finished. This was an insulated table runner I pieced for myself but never quilted or bound. I did finish it this year, though I have to admit I no longer love it and don't know how often it will be used.

Front of Table Runner

Back

I also had planned to make this whole cloth baby quilt for a new addition to a friend's family a couple of years ago. Oh well. Now I'm thinking I might just donate it to a worthy cause

Zoo Animals Baby Quilt

Now for a few projects that were started and finished all in the same year. I know right?

I joined a the West Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild at the beginning of 2013 and I have to say that the gang inspired me to get quite a few projects finished. We had a few cute swaps including mug rugs, pin cushions, and holiday ornaments. I have to admit that we did the ornament swap in November and I just didn't have my act together for the holidays yet, so I swapped an ornament I made a couple of years ago. And, of course we made name tags to wear at meetings. I had a few too many ideas, so I ended up making four.

Mug rugs

Pin Cushions

2011 Ornament

name tags

Most of us also participated in the Blend Hip Holiday Challenge. What luscious colors for Christmas. I designed another table topper with lots of flying geese. I became a bit obsessed with flying geese this year, but more on that later.

Front

Back

Speaking of the holidays I made some cute "wonky hash tag" place mats (thank you Amy Gibson BOM 2012), and complimented them with a set of matching napkins. They made just the right touch for our holiday beer tasting dinner with friends.

Place mats

Napkins

Table Setting

And I did finally get around to designing and making some Christmas ornaments

2013 ornament

And then there were "the niece quilts". Somewhere along the line last year I realized that I had made quilts for me, quilts for the babies of family and friends, but I had never made quilts for my nieces. All of them are grown and live far away from me, so I didn't have as good an idea of colors and tastes as I would have liked, but what the heck.
For Coleen I designed "Floating Frames", which is bold and geometric, but also improvisational. I didn't even make a pattern for this quilt - just started cutting strips and let it grow organically. That led to a few fits when bias edges wanted to stretch out of shape (all of those square frames are set on point), but in the end I liked it. And luckily she told me after she opened it that her bedroom is red. Win!

Front

Back

For Cindy, I wanted something a bit more orderly, but warm and making you think of home and family. I called this "Urban Map" because when I looked at it the colors made me think of city blocks with green parks interspersed. The big bold flowers on the back gave me pause, but it did make me think of the riot of color that was my grandmother's rose garden (carried on for years by our grandfather after she passed). That seems like a fitting tribute to family, home and hearth. The pattern for this quilt is available here.

Front

Back

Front

Wendy, the youngest, was the biggest challenge. "Tetris Hex" speaks to me of a young woman with so many talents. The falling hexagons reflect both an orderly mind, but the ability to try and succeed at many things. I wasn't sure about the yellow. I mean it is YELLOW. But Wendy is a ray of sunshine AND a strong individual that others can and do lean on. Whether it matches her house or not, it did seem to suit her. The pattern for this quilt can be found here.

Back

Of course there are plenty of projects still sitting around unfinished. There is the Craftsy BOM for 2013. I've been noodling on adding some borders and making it bigger.

Craftsy BOM 2013

The larkspur quilt which I've been working on since 2012. I had a good bit of this quilted before I realized I had a HUGE pucker in the back. So it all had to be picked out. I kind of lost heart after that, but I will start again soon.

Larkspur Queen Bed Quilt started 2012

I also had an idea to make a quilt with all blocks using flying geese. I am in no way drawn to the color purple, but I have another niece, Robin, who passed a few years ago from Cystic Fibrosis. She loved purple, so this seemed a fitting tribute to her. I'd like to finish this one up this year and perhaps give the quilt to her mom.

Gaggle of Geese Quilt Started Summer 2013

The hex quilt that I've been working on for a couple of years is finally all pieced too, and that needs to be quilted. The idea was to use up scraps from all of the different projects since I started quilting ten years ago. The rounds are organized with the colors of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) and in the manner that my mom used to sort laundry (darks, brights, and lights) with a few blacks and browns at the center and whites around the outer edges. I'm really struggling with how to quilt it as I don't want to take away from the geometry of the hexagrams or the color gradient.

One Quarter of Quilt Top

A Rainbow of Brights and Lights

Finally, I had fun in 2013 with Amy Gibson's Sugar Block Club, so that one needs to be finished up. This picture doesn't show it, but in addition to the dozen twelve inch blocks from the club, I drafted and made half and quarter size blocks with the same designs. I just have to make a few more and I'll be ready to think about sashing.

What else is on the list for 2014? Well I have three gifts I need to make for birthdays in the next couple of weeks, a play mat for the new baby of a friend, my quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild / Riley Blake challenge which is due in February, and I want to make quilts for my two brothers. Plus I have three different bags cut out that need to be assembled.  Not enough? Wait until I tell you about the cat and dog blankets my friends and I are making for shelter animals...

Until next time.

Happy Handmade Christmas Y'all

'

Ornaments Past and Present

For the last several years I've made ornaments each Christmas that reflect a new skill I've learned or as a tribute to an artist I admire. I attach these to packages, give them away as favors at holiday parties and as hostess gifts, and keep a few to hang on our own tree.

 

In 2006 I was interested in needle tatting and made little beaded snowflakes and wreaths

In 2007 I was all about crazy quilting as I worked on a Victorian bed sized quilt similar to an antique one that my mother had from her mother. More on that here.

2008 was the year of wet felting. I was crocheting and wet felting everything in sight. If you would like to try making them, here is the pattern

I guess I must have skipped 2009, but by 2010, I was enamored or an embellishment technique I had learned from an article in Quilting Arts magazine. More on this idea here. 

And again in 2011, I totally stole this technique for a large size reverse trapunto quilt and used it for ornaments. Here is the blog post about the technique.

Last year a friend introduced me to Natalie Chanin, the awesome designer behind Alabama Chanin. After looking at her gorgeous apparel, how could I not make hand sewn cotton jersey ornaments. Natalie offers finished product, kits, and workshops, so take a look at her website.

This year I was a bit stumped for an idea, and then right around Thanksgiving I was looking at an email from Sew Daily right before going to sleep. The message included this image.

I'm one of those crazy people that problem solves in my sleep. Well of course I woke up in the middle of the night with an understanding of how I could make these.

It couldn't be easier. Use stiff double sided fusible interfacing and bond fabric on both sides of a sheet. Use a rotary circle cutter (or draw circles and cut them out by hand). I made mine about 3 1/2 inches. You will need a total of four circles for each ornament, but it you fuse up larger sheets, you can cut multiples of one fabric. I fused fat quarters (or scraps from other projects that were about that size) and was able to get  up to 16 circles out of each bonding effort. If you have a sewing machine that can handle a really thick stack, then stitch two of the circles together right down the middle (I used a vanishing marker to draw a line in the center of each circle from top to bottom). Now fold both of those circles back on themselves to make two sets of wings. Match up the remaining two circles with the previously sewn pieces and stitch down through all thicknesses. If your machine chokes on that much fabric, these are just as easy to stitch by hand, and a good "in front of the TV" project. Open out the eight wings. If desired you can hand stitch a small bead between each wing to help them stay open. The final step is to take a 7-8 inch piece of embroidery floss and centering it on the bottom of the ornament, bring it up between the wings. Tie it close to the top of the ornament, and again at the ends of the floss to create a hanger. That's it. Easy-peasey!

Paper Pieced Ornaments

Am I crazy to be thinking about Christmas ornaments in January? Considering how this project is progressing, I might be.

This past year I worked on a block of the month club with Amy Gibson and one of our blocks was paper pieced. That’s not English paper pieced which is a whole different thing resulting in the hex quilt I was talking about earlier this week.

For paper piecing, you start out with a square of paper that might look something like this

Following the instructions, fabric is sewn directly onto the paper using the lines to indicate where seams go. Four of these pieces are then sewn together ending up with something that might look like this.

At least that’s what my twelve inch finished block looked like for the quilt.

All good so far. The problem started when I decided to take the designs I had come up with for a tree,

a star,

and a bow,

and make them all three inches square.

The tree wasn't all that bad if you can ignore the sloppy top stitching. But it took over two hours to sew one and I didn't think repetition was going to knock off much time.

Then I tried the star. Disaster.

I didn’t even bother to finish the star. Granted I could have managed the seams better, but with these designs and sizing, I’m always going to be trying to manage too many tiny little seams that are on top of each other.

No wonder I never liked making doll clothes.

So I’m going back to the drawing board. I think I might even need to study up on paper piecing tips and tricks. I’m sure someone has solved this problem before. Probably more than a few times.

I’ll keep you posted.

Post-Holiday Catch Up

It seems I've been so busy preparing for, celebrating, and dismantling the holidays that I've forgotten to blog about it. Lest you think I'm a total been slacker, here are a few of the things I've been up to since Thanksgiving.

Back in the spring of 2012 I mentioned that I was taking Amy Gibson’s Block of the Month class on Craftsy.  Well in due course I finished the quilt. Because I chose holiday colors (if not necessarily holiday themed fabric) it seemed essential that I get it finished and hung before our annual holiday party on December 15^th. I made it with a few days to spare and even managed to get our tree up and decorated to show it off. In hindsight I wish I had used a bit less aqua in the background and more white, but all in all I liked it well enough.

Speaking of that party, I also always make ornaments for our guests to take home as party favors. In October I had the opportunity to meet Natalie Chanin, (please watch the video at this link). Natalie is the founder and head designer at Alabama Chanin, and I talked with her about her work. I was wowed by this phenomenally talented entrepreneur, designer and author. After looking at her current collection of handmade apparel, I knew I had found my inspiration for this year’s ornament. Like her apparel line these ornaments are all hand stitched and embellished with simple monochromatic designs. Most of the techniques can be found in her book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design.  The ornament shown at left is just one example. I always ensure that each of my ornaments is bit different. Some of the ones for this year included embroidery, beads and a variety of embellishments.

I wish I had some good pictures of the party to share but the truth is that I cook for a week straight to get ready for the party and by the evening of I just want to relax, drink a few glasses of wine and talk with friends. Somehow I never remember to pick up the camera. I did have good pictures of the ornament I made last year. Remember these? I leveraged that one for the invitation this year.

One final holiday sewing project to consider for next year – or any time of year depending on your fabric – is holiday tissue box covers. We keep tissue boxes all over the house since I have allergies and I’m also prone to boohooing over everything from true tragedy to cute commercials on TV. In past years I've found cute holiday themed boxes to scatter about, but this year nada. My solution? I made some covers to go over a standard Kleenex Ultra Soft tissue box. This is a really simple project and you should be able to make one cover out of a fat quarter or regular ¼ yard cut left from another project. Just follow these instructions.

Find an empty tissue box and take it apart.

Cut out two pieces of fabric that are 5 x 5 inches for the top and four pieces that are 5 x 6 for the sides.

Fuse a piece of heavy weight interfacing to the back of all four side pieces and one of the top pieces.

On the reverse side of one top piece of fabric trace the opening from the cardboard box top.

Place your two top pieces with right sides together and stitch around the line you have made.

Trim away the material in the center of the oval opening leaving about a ¼ inch seam allowance.

Clip the curves on the oval and turn and press the fabric so that right sides are now out.

Stitch the side pieces – one to each side of the top – and press these seams away from the top of the cover.

Turn the cover inside out and stitch down the side seams making sure to back-stitch at the top and bottom of each seam. These are pressure points so you want to make sure the stitches won’t pull out.

Turn up the base of the cover toward the inside to make the cover approximately 5 ½ inches tall – measure with your tissue box to ensure it fully covers the cardboard. Stitch around the base to hold the fold in place.

That’s all there is to it, and now that you know how to do this with this particular box, you can see how easy it would be to do with any size box of tissue, just measure your box, make sure to add sufficient fabric to leave seam allowances and use the box top as a template.

Now about those toilet paper covers…

And The Winner Is...

What a fun week of blog hopping! But now it's Sunday morning and time to announce the winner of my Quilting Gallery 4th Birthday Blog Hop give-away. Hueisei, all the way from Penang, Malaysia is the winner. As a final stop on this whirlwind tour of the quilting blogosphere,  stop by her blog Love it Sew it for even more inspiration. Hueisei said, "Crisscrossed bag is my favorite." so maybe that is the pattern she will choose. But as promised, she can select any of the more than 25 patterns listed at my Etsy.com shop.
Tomorrow it's back to your regularly scheduled holiday activities and perhaps a break from the computer. As for me I'll be doing quite a lot of hand work on the couch for the next week. Our faithful dog, Lady is scheduled for surgery to remove a small skin tumor on Tuesday. That means lots of spoiling to come, and doing whatever we can to keep her calm and not fussing at her stitches until she is healed.

Happy Holidays Everyone!