Jan
20
Spoonflower Outdated Technology Contest
Filed Under Drawing, Geeking, Painting | 2 Comments
See that fabric? It’s the first one I’ve designed myself. I’d been thinking about doing some designs up just for fun, but then I saw that Spoonflower was hosting a contest for fabrics with an “Outdated Technology” theme. First thing that pops into this (not a) geek’s head is old floppy disks.
I think it still needs some tweaking. The print itself is really quite small, and I think it needs more of a background color to make it look a bit less stark, but overall I’m pleased. And I should be, I did a LOT of fighting with Illustrator to get the darn thing cropped correctly.
So if you get a chance and are so inclined, head over to the contest page and vote for me!
Jan
11
Wordless Wednesday — Jan photo-a-day
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Jan
9
Summer Hours
Filed Under Quilting, Sewing | 8 Comments
Summer has been over for a (long) while now, but that didn’t stop Saturday from being an absolutely gorgeous day. But for the positioning of the sun in the sky, it easily could have been an early summer (you know, that’s in March in central Texas) day. A perfect day for a photo shoot outdoors.
Being lazy (ok, I admit to not wanting to have to deal with the baby while trying to protect my quilt and take photos of it at the same time) I opted to set up the shots out on Alexis’ playscape while he napped. This is the second time I’ve used it as a back drop and I really like the weathered wood against the fresh clean quilt.
This little hourglass quilt was made from the cutest teensy charm pack of Moda’s Summer House which I received in my Sewing Summit swag bag and it took mere hours to whip up. Hence the name “Summer Hours“. The white is Kona White that I had leftover from January’s do. Good Stitches blocks (which are still not sewn… hehehe). This quilt is tiny at about 16″ x 20″. The perfect size to drag into work and hang on my oh so blank wall.
It’s a shame that you can’t see it well here, but the backing fabric is (I think) aqua Sketch from Timeless Treasures. It’s a very fine crosshatch pattern that I am just in love with. You can however see very well the criss-cross quilting on the back. I’m still really new to machine quilting, and after sewing up the scarf for my mother in law using my walking foot, I decided to try using it for straight line quilting. Now, I’m very averse to change for some reason, but I’m now kicking myself for never trying the walking foot before. It. is. a.maz.ing. Definitely will be using it for more machine quilting.
The only thing I don’t love about this quilt is the binding. It’s some nondescript solid gray that I had a fat quarter of. (I hate it when I get the fat quarter without the selvege identifying it, don’t you?) I think it’s really just too pale. I had another gray, a patterned fabric, that I considered using, but decided against it because I didn’t want it to be too busy. Now I wonder if I should have gone with my instinct.
Anyway, the bright colors and fun pattern at least lighten up my days a bit. The “cold” short days are getting to me and making it hard to stay positive. (Well, that and the complete lack of sleep courtesy of a baby who cannot self soothe for anything.) I enjoyed piecing this quilt tremendously, and in fact, I let it sit on my chair upstairs in it’s quilted, but unbound state for a couple of days because I love the look of a freshly quilted and trimmed up ready for binding quilt.
I’m noticing lately, that I’ve been pushing myself to try new things. Six months ago I would have scoffed at the idea of making a mini-quilt — but now I see the value in these little fast quilts. Not to mention the (almost) instant gratification. I’ve tried new ways to cut HSTs, I’m using my walking foot, tried my hand at big stitch quilting (so much faster and easier on the fingers than traditional hand quilting) and I credit all of this change to the amazing online sewing community. I know most of these women don’t even know it, but they’re inspiring people like me to try new things every day.
Ok, now that I’ve completely gone off course, and what’s worse gotten all mushy, I’ll leave you with a question. What have you tried new lately? or if you rather, What else should I try that I’m missing out on?
Linking up with Fabric Tuesdays.
Jan
6
do. Good Stitches — December
Filed Under Giving, Quilting, Sewing | Leave a Comment
I’m so far behind for December because I was trying so hard to get Alexis’ quilt done that I had no time for anything else. Luckily, Anna (who must have some sort of super psychic sense about such things) chose a really simple — yet fun — block for the DREAM circle’s December blocks (say that five times fast!)
Postage stamp blocks are just classic and simple and fun… or at least fun for people like me who prefer picking out (and petting) fabrics to actually cutting and sewing. I whipped these two up in less than an hour (not including fawning over fabric and cutting squares).
It’s coming soon. March is my month to choose the quilt and I have no idea what I’m going to pick. What else is new right?
Jan
5
Drawstring Bag for Blocks
Filed Under Sewing | 2 Comments
Sean got a set of these classic wooden blocks from his aunt, uncle and cousins for Christmas, but check out the storage bag they came with.
Um. No. Or well, maybe I just was looking for an excuse to make this bag from (yet another) tutorial from In Color Order. I tell ya, JeniB has got it going on… This bag is the cutest, easiest thing in the world to whip up.
I used some of the fabrics that Faith destashed a while back, and I am nuts about how the main exterior fabric sort of echos the blocks designs.
Sean is crazy about the bag. Not so much about actually keeping the blocks in it though. I think we picked up all 50 blocks about 50 times this weekend because he would dump them out (with great joy as they made loud noise on the bamboo floors) and then prance around with the bag. Sometimes with the bag on his head. I sort of wonder about that child. Nah… that’s totally the kind of thing Alexis would have done too. ;)
