WIP Wednesday

It's been for a little while, but I am really loving having my own space for quilting.  What a difference it makes in productivity and cleanliness levels.  We have a few things left to fix up in my sewing room, but I think that when it is done I will post up some pictures because I'm so proud how well it turned out!

Anyways, this week my friend Jess and I continued along our journey through the quilt blocks in Vintage Quilt Revival.  If you look below you'll see our efforts, her's is on the left and mine is on the right.  I'm so impressed with how much she has improved since we started.  I am continuing to try and branch away from my usual fabric choices. 

The lighting is not great because I took these late in the day without much natural light so you can't get the full effect, but this block has a nice "jewel tone" to it, which I really dig but never seem to do!

Here is the third little top that I've made in this pattern with a print from the Little Ones fabric line--I love it so much!  It was a real lesson in patience because of how many times I messed up but in the end it's delightful (and I will never mark pattern pieces on the good side of my fabric ever again).  I used double fold bias tape that I bought on the sleeves, and for this top I made the neck pieces bigger on my own--I much prefer that look!

This one is for my little one, so when she wears it I will take and post a picture :-)

Here is a cute little pair of leggings I made as a baby gift.  But, once again, I messed up.  I had the stretch going up and down, not side to side, by accident.  So I cut off the top and replaced it with some fabric with the stretch going the right way.  I hope these work!!

Bonus baby picture for those who made it this far!

I was so excited to get this bundle in the mail.  The top five fabrics are knits and one voile, and the rest is some Penelope by Camelot Cottons and yardage of a home decor Bungalow from Joel Dewberry (see usage below).

And here is my "custom" ironing board.  I just stapled some batting, insul-brite, and the fabric onto a scrap piece of plywood I cut to size.  I plan to attach it to my ironing board stand for stability, but I am pretty excited about this.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday with Freshly Pieced.

Trying new things

So, I have to admit, I am never a person to do things halfway.  And now that I have tried out sewing clothes, I find that I really like it.  I am thinking that part of that is accounted for by the fact that you can finish what you start in one day.  Sometimes. 

The above soon to be outfit is based off of two separate tutorials from online, pants here and shirt here.  The giraffe fabric is from Fabricland, it's a stretchy fabric of some type, not the greatest quality I would guess (but $5/m was pretty awesome!), and the bloomers are a quilting cotton. The top is much bigger than I thought and will in no way fit Abby  at this time, but I am concerned that the bloomers will just fit if at all--her legs are pretty chunky.  So, I'm at a standstill.  Also I need to learn how to do a buttonhole.  Yikes!

This top comes from this tutorial, and I love it! In fact I've already made another.  This was a gift for a special birthday girl and I didn't have anything to give her so I thought I could make it.  Love this fabric for baby clothes too!

In quilting news, I decided that I wanted to make a mini quilt to hang in my sewing room.  I plan to have a few over time, so this is the first.  Although Adam likes it so much it may end up in the house proper.  Oh well, I can always make more!

I tried something new with the binding where you make a pocket and tuck the end in, as well as zig-zagging it.  I'm not loving the pocket just because it makes it so bulky, but I love the zig-zag!! Also, this is the binding that I made for one of my first quilts ever, and way way way over guesstimated how much I needed, so it shows up on a lot of projects, luckily it's great.

I used the walking foot to quilt straight lines one inch apart.  I thought that it would be better to keep the quilting simple and I really failed hard the last time I tried to straight line quilt so I thought wider spaces might help.

Last but not least, I have started a big project as a gift for my sister.  It is aptly titled the Project of Doom, and is a paper-pieced Harry Potter bookshelf quilt.  My sister and I are both big into HP so I'm pretty pumped.  And so is she!!

I will be linking up to WIP Wednesday  at Freshly Pieced and Finish it up Friday with crazymomquilts, have a great week everyone!

Better late than never.

Well, I can't remember exactly when I finished this top, although it probably is somewhere in my blog, but it was definitely in 2012.  And it languished for a long time, just needing me to finish squaring it up and put on binding.  Nothing complicated or long term! But, I wasn't ready to finish it? However, it is finally complete!!

This was from a QAL by Sew Happy Geek, button is on my sidebar.

I used leftovers from the piecing to make the binding, I had it going so that the colours graduated all the way around but I made way too much so had to cut it short so it doesn't quite work out.

I still like this quilt, but I know my tastes have changed since I put this together--it's not my favourite, but my hubby likes it so that's a win.  Not that I don't like it.

Jess and I put together our next blocks for our quilt, her's on the left and mine on the right.  I'm doing the layout from the book that has borders around all of the blocks so I chose to do it all with that herringbone print.

This was pretty scary to make.  My niece turns 2 years old today, and I didn't get a chance to go to the city and buy something so I decided to make something.  The pattern and tutorial for this top can be found here.

It is reversible, and I made quite a few mistakes, but they were all salvageable, although the ties are clearly noticeable (I didn't realize I needed 4 ties and didn't have enough turquoise) I figured that wasn't the worst thing that could happen.  It took me quite a long time to make this, but I do feel a little braver about sewing clothing and perhaps I will try again in the future.  I do hope that it fits though!!

Linking up to finish it up Friday at crazymomquilts!

Abby's Baby Quilt!

Well, there was long period of time where this project sat in limbo, but I finally buckled down and finished it!!

The fabric is Heirloom by Joel Dewberry in Citrine.

I used mostly the one orange fabric for the binding but stuck a few random pieces of other patterns in to mix it up.

I quilted it in an all over stipple, not too small scale, with some 'hidden' gems.  There's some hearts, flowers, and her initials.

There actually is a heart there.

That's one of the (kinda) flowers.

The backing is my favourite pattern from the line, and I bought that little stat square from a local lady who does that sort of thing with her embroidery machine.  I knew as soon as I saw the idea that I wanted to sew it into the quilt, and it worked out smashingly.

I was going to put it in the centre of the quilt with the floral pattern all around--I have lots more--but I decided that this way I a) didn't have to cut any of the patterned fabric, I just used the length I'd trimmed a while ago, and b) I could save my yardage for something else, like a bed skirt or curtains or something!

I think she likes it!

I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day, and Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!

Paper piecing extravaganza!

Well, we did block number 2 in my Vintage Quilt Revival book.  It was a doozy!  But awesome.  I didn't realize when I bought the book how many blocks were foundation pieced, but it will certainly be good practice.



This is my block!  I went a bit of a different direction with colours, and so I'm hoping that when the whole thing is together I'll have some good flow.  Good thing is, with this kind of quilt, I'm hoping that the variety adds to it!  This may be one of the 'neatest' quilt blocks I've ever made.  Good old paper piecing.

Here is Jess's block:



That herringbone is one of my favourite fabrics!! It is pretty tough to ask someone new to quilting to dive into a block like this, and she did great.






Our little helper was loving those high contrast chevrons!!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Quilting with company

Well, we have finally done it.  A friend of mine and I are going to work our way through the book Vintage Quilt Revival one block at a time to make a sampler quilt.  She is just learning how to quilt so it's a great way to practice for her, and it's really nice for me to have someone to do it with!

Also, with my little imp, it is nice to have something that is just little, manageable bits at a time...and we can take turns keeping baby happy!

We are just using fabrics from my stash, so we'll see how it all turns out in the end! Also, it's a good way to get myself to use those *favourite* fabrics that I keep saving for "something special."

My colours are a little more muted and soft:

I know you can't really see it, but I love the grey and white tree print!!

While hers a bit brighter and more vibrant--and I'm a huge fan of how hers turned out.

I'll have to try to avoid too much pink I think so that this one isn't too girly.  But I guess with every new block we will see how these unfold!

Sharing this with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

I could never be trouble could I???

Also joining in on...

Oops...

Well, I believe it has been a long time since I have done anything here.  My problem is twofold: 1-I still haven't finished my sewing room so all of my supplies are boxed up or in the bottom of a pile of stuff still. 2-Who knew having a baby would turn my life upside down? (Okay, well that one I had an inkling).

Anyways, I'm posting my idea for progress in the hopes that it will inspire progress!  I bought this book over the holidays:

I just love everything in it.  I hemmed and hawed because I have a lot of quilt patterns waiting to do, but I just loved everything Lee posted that came from it.

So my plan is that a friend and I are going to get together maybe once a month and make one block at a time (maybe a couple times a month) until we make one of each and make them into a quilt each!!  I love sampler quilts and it's a low commitment way to do things. And we can take turns occupying baby girl if she's awake!

Because who wouldn't want to??