I made this pillow back on October 17th - a little sewing here and there throughout the day and it was done. It's a shameless copy of the orange and black pillow on Cluck Cluck Sew - it was too cute not to! Her pillow is more about the colors, while mine is a bit more busy and includes my tiny stash of Halloween fabrics. But people . . . I loves it!
And, I discovered the golden hour. I want to bathe in these pictures. Is that weird?
I couldn't pick just one, or two, or three.
It only took 91 pictures to get five good ones . . .
The back is Riley Blake Witch Hazel. I wish I had a bolt of it.
It's going to be sad to pack away the pillow cover in a few days. Maybe I'll have to make a Thanksgiving pillow next?
Stats:
-18" pillow cover
- Zipper closure
- Made up of half square triangles
For my recent birthday I received a little money, which I put to good use buying fabric
(a girl can't have too much!).
Here are my spoils!
6 yards of Lecien Flower Sugar. I'm going to use this as the background for my Gypsy Kisses quilt. I've been thinking of doing a quilt along with tutorials, different techniques, etc. beginning next year (I've got to finish this year's projects first). But I'd love to know if anyone's interested/their thoughts on that idea.
I ordered this Eco Twill in Stone for Sam's Easter suit and some fusible stabilizer for Will's Easter outfit and had to round out my order to get free shipping. These goodies hopped on in and filled up my cart (Acacia, Bright and Buzzy honeycomb, and Geekly Chic glasses).
Another order had the green ducks from Country Girls, an Avalon charm pack, and that awesome Scrumptious dot. I think I'm going to use it for the eyes of my Gypsy Kisses quilt. Now that I have seen it in person, I think I need a bolt of it.
And lastly, I got these. The Little Kukla dolls tell me they want to be a summer bag(?). I LOVE the Sweet as Honey prints. I'd get more of both. My mom said the floral would make a great dress. I have to agree - and I think that tiny touch of dark pink/red makes the print. The Wee Wander - well, I seem to be on a blue kick lately.
Now I have to use these goodies - anyone know where I can get an extra secret two hours in a day?
I saw the Scrappy Trip Along way back at the beginning of the year and was very excited by it, so I became a joiner. It took me longer to complete because I just worked on it here and there as I felt like it.
Last week it got sent to my sister-in-law for her birthday.
The quilt is made entirely from my scraps/stash. I didn't purchase anything new for it - not fabric, not batting, not thread. I made sure to hammer that point home to my husband so he would know I am trying to use up some of my hoards of fabric (bought recently and long ago, inherited, etc.). My goal for this year is to not buy fabric (unless it's charm packs of Fig Tree for my collection or diaper fabric or for a very specific reason), and I have done really well, only buying diaper fabric since before Will was born. The backing is from stash, and the binding is excess scraps from the backing after I finished the quilting.
I wasn't too sure of this concept as I made the blocks, because some of them were ugly, but I was determined to use fabric, cut strips off lots of fabrics in my stash, used from my scrap jar, and luckily at the end it looked pretty decent.
I'll be making more versions of this quilt sometime - while I was cutting I went ahead and cut extras of each fabric, so I already have enough strips cut for a second quilt.
This was my first month of the Clamshell Club. I got off to a slow start, but I never claimed this would be a fast project. I decided to use Christmas fabrics from my stash – this will bust over half of them. I'll have to get some new Christmas fabrics to finish the quilt, but at least I did use from stash first (a big deal for me).
I spent most of my time cutting as my supplies started trickling in (mylar for the template, a book for the pattern, appliqué pins and straw needles, etc.). So far I have this stack of cut clamshells . . .
This stack of glue-basted clamshells (some of them are coming unbasted, Yikes!) . . .
These sets of sewn clamshells . . .
And this set of pinned clamshells . . .
I like it so far. I guess I am most worried about having the colors balance, since I am going for a super scrappy look. I like order and planned and pretty, so random scrappy is a challenge for me.
I was a little sad that I was only able to piece two sets of clamshells on our trip the other day, but I think it will go more quickly if I pin a bunch before we leave (pinning in the car is difficult). We will be doing a lot of traveling this fall . . .
I wonder how long it will take me to accumulate fabric for, cut, baste, and piece and throw-sized top?
I have decided on a new quilting project (because I don’t already have like 26 on the list). I want to make a clamshell quilt. It will be all hand-pieced, which will be good for trips. I was really inspired by Brown Dirt Cottage’s blog, and she had a picture and the name of the book she was inspired by, so I found it on Amazon for $0.48 plus shipping (used, but in very good condition). I needed to get the replacement charger for our camera anyways, so I added the book, and then found a mini cutting mat and ruler set for $8.55 that would be great for working in the car, at work, etc. So we have three little packages coming our way.
After some serious internal debate, I have decided to dig into my Christmas fabrics and work from stash. I can always add some new if I need to, but we'll start with these and see how many clamshells we get. It looks like any new fabric will need to be green . . .
Obviously, it’s going to take some time to make a throw-sized quilt, but it’ll be a good hand project, just grab-n-go (something I am always struggling to find right before we leave for a trip).
I got a sheet of Mylar template plastic, so when my book gets here, I can copy the clamshell template and get started. I looked at appliqué pins and straw needles, but I didn’t like the ones at JoAnn’s, so I’ll have to head online or go to Sew Biz again. I should have everything in time to start on our trip back home the end of the month.
I guess I need to check my smaller rotary cutter to see if it is small enough (I think it is) and get a new blade or get a mini cutter. I am so excited to get my little kit and get started. Although the clamshell quilt will be slow progress mainly for trips or hand sewing while watching TV, the mini cutting kit can be used for many projects, including marking FGF squares at lunch or while watching TV.
So dear readers, wish me luck as I join the Clamshell Club!
Why: Saw these yesterday and thought they were cute. With my recent Sturbridge Harvest find, I did some background research, found out they were designer, and had to go back.
When: At lunch. The ladies tried to offer me a job, since I’m there so much.
Cost: $6.29 including tax (priced at $9.99 less my 40% off coupon)
What will I make with these? Who knows? I have a potholder pattern and an apron pattern that need making, but these pretties might have to sit awhile.
I bought the Winter 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting for the quilt on the front cover. I have always wanted to make that quilt.
Then a week or so ago, I decided it would be great to make matching quilts for my ladies at work (there’s six of us that are very close, we have become good friends in addition to being coworkers) as a Christmas present. I needed something fairly simple, but still wanted the Christmas look. Ta Da! The Fly Away Home quilt from the cover (designed by one of the Fig Tree Quilts designers)! I made my decision after checking with just one of the girls (who had also been my sorority sister in college), who promised to keep it a secret.
Here are the details: one quilt contains 348 flying geese units. That means for 6 quilts, I need 2,088 flying geese. I also need border fabric, binding fabric, and batting for 6 throw size quilts. And to make them special, I decided to add a row of variable stars as signature blocks, so each lady will have all 6 signatures (her own plus the other 5). So I need fabric for the back of 6 quilts as well. I was able to shop my stash, but only found a piddling yard or so of fabric (2 FQs plus a BIG scrap of red fabric and some cream scraps) that would work. This means I’ll have to accumulate another 79 yards or so of fabric. I found 2 FQs at JoAnn’s and bought them with my 40% off coupons, plus I got a yard of cream fabric for 30% off. So far I have spent $5.44 total on fabric.
My plan is to work on this as leader-enders with a couple of other quilting projects in addition to piecing a couple geese a day. Hopefully that will help it go more quickly and less stressfully than forcing myself to work on it as my only project. When I did the math, giving myself until Dec. 1 to complete the quilts and leaving 60 days in there for quilting and binding, I have 136 days to sew. That amounts to about 15 flying geese per day. If I set aside a dedicated hour for sewing, that’s not bad, and on the weekends I usually try to get a couple hours a day in, so I think I can do it. Now that I’ve committed, I have to! I may lose my mind in the process, but if I can pull it off, it will be great!
I’m going to put a stats box up on the sidebar for those who want to keep track of my progress. Hopefully it will help keep me motivated as well.
Here's the first goose . . .
. . . and I'm stitching an extra seam to make little HST's as well. I'll probably make a secondary project out of them later on.
Haven't sewn since finishing the burp cloth, except to add a selvage or two to my first selvage block. I'm going to try a few and see how they go. I'm not so sure of this first one.
Oh, and I did make up some quick sheers for our kitchen window (from an existing panel) so we didn't have to look at the construction going on next door (and so they couldn't see in).
But I've found a lot of stuff and cut a lot of scraps from the blue bin.
There are still two grocery bags of scraps to cut, and I have lots of yardage that needs to be folded properly and organized, but that is not as big a task as controlling the scraps.
I definitely feel like they are more usable cut into strips and squares than the odd shaped pieces they start as (see below for an example - and it's not nearly as funky shaped as some of them).
From a funky shape . . . to neat 1.5", 2", and 2.5" squares and an odd triangle.
You might be wondering where I got these random scraps. Well, some of them are from things I have made, but most of them are from an estate sale I attended with my grandma when I was a kid (probably middle school). There was a big box of scraps along with a thing of buttons and other odds and ends that we bought on the cheap, and I've kept them for years because I might use them (but I haven't in probably 10 years). So I'm trying to get them in usable order. One small step in controlling my ridiculous stash.
Well, I dragged out the big blue tub from the bottom of my craft closet and started sorting and taming. This is the big blue tub that has been with me since high school and is full of scraps and random fabric. It takes up the entire bottom of the single closet in the guest room (now my craft closet).
Bonnie Hunter says to cut for 15 minutes at a time, but I'm a bit obsessive and did probably an hour. So far, I've found 5 fat quarters, about 4 yds of fabric (a few pieces from 3/4 of a yard to >2yds), several patterns, two partially completed cross-stitch kits, and tons of scraps and nice sized pieces of fabric that I can put with the FQs. There was this lovely windmill print. I cut it into small pieces - like Bonnie says "if it's still ugly, it's not small enough!" For those of you who like this - the camera flatters it. It's not even this pretty in real life.
And here is the burp cloth I finished last night. It was just what I needed to get me going again. A quick, easy project (especially as I had already cut and pressed the pieces). If I ever get an Etsy shop up and running, it will be for sale. I am making a baby quilt with the remaining fabric, eventually.
Well, it's late, and I have lots of cleaning to do in the AM, so I'm signing off.
And, I discovered the golden hour. I want to bathe in these pictures. Is that weird?
I couldn't pick just one, or two, or three. 
It only took 91 pictures to get five good ones . . .
The back is Riley Blake Witch Hazel. I wish I had a bolt of it.
It's going to be sad to pack away the pillow cover in a few days. Maybe I'll have to make a Thanksgiving pillow next?
