Quilting Away

Thursday, I went into my local fabric shop (lfs?) in search fabric for the quilt-along. An hour and some change later, I emerged with more questions than answers. I needed to get twelve fat quarters that divided into two categories, be it dark vs. light, print vs. plain, or some other distinctions. Beyond that, I was lost. I left with twelve fabrics, but knew that the issue was yet to be settled. At home, I played around with the fabrics that I had chosen and some fabrics from my stash. It wasn’t until I sat down to start writing a post about what a pain it was to choose fabric that I realized something: I have an inordinate amount of polka dots in my stash. Eureka!

And so we have polka dots and floral/scroll-y fabrics and blocks A and B complete. I’ve just begun block C and it’s definitely giving me a lot of trouble in the squaring up stage. I’m heading out now in search of some freezer paper to try Elizabeth’s trick. Wish me luck!

 

Another one bites the dust!

Woohoo! I’m on a roll. Two down and only two more to go.

This one is for my niece, Zoe. These fabrics are from a charm pack and I’ve already forgotten the name of the collection. (I know, I’m bad.) I just love the raindrops and the salmon and the hidden squirrels so much! The embriodery is free-handed, basically just doodles that I liked. Of course, none of it is straight, but that’s the beauty of handmade. So, I actually began this quilt, oh, last summer? Why yes, I am the princess of Procrastination. It is going in the mail tomorrow, so I’m hoping that my bro and sis-in-law don’t read my blog (or at least that they’ll feign surprise when they recieve the gift).

Productivity is the word of the week around here and as I finish projects, I am itching to add more to my list. My next sewing project will be the mod-sampler quilt that I mentioned in my last post. As for knitting, I’m actually completing one full pair of socks(!), only because I broke down and started knitting two socks at a time using very long circs and the magic loop method. They’re taking longer to complete, but I won’t have to worry about my chronic single-sock-syndrome. After that, I’m dreaming about doing my first sweater, prompted by the release of Spring ‘09 Knitty. I have eyes on the Pioneer top as my first sweater and the Aeolian shawl (times two and sewn into a rectangle) for a chuppah*. Sigh, so much to do, so much to do…

* Before you go getting your hopes up, I am not in want of a chuppah in the immediate future, but I do intend to knit it, which will take forever. I should probably get started if I want to get married before I’m thirty.

 

Quilts!

Oh, me. I’m always wanting to get into new crafts. Actually, quilting is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. It is a natural combination of my mathematical and crafty interests. Somehow quilting kept getting put on the back-burner. Last November, I finally buckled down and took an introductory course. I never got around to mentioning it here or getting pics of my project, which is now at home at my parent’s house in Portland. I’ll be sure to get a pic when we go down in a few weeks.

I’ve worked on a few quilts since then and am finally going to show off one of them. This is Sonya’s quilt. Sonya is my mister’s niece and she enjoys going to the zoo. I used a cute flannel full of jungle animals on the backside and kept the front simple so that I could play with some stippling. Wasn’t I just saying how much chutzpah I have? I mean, a beginner quilter going free-motion? It’s a lot easier than it looks. Most of the fabric, the backing excluded, is from my stash. Gotta make room for more, you know.

I have three more small quilts to finish (mostly binding) before the mister will let me start another one and I’m itching to catch up with the quilt-along that Elizabeth is doing over at Oh, Fransson! Elizabeth’s tutorials are written with great detail. I especially enjoyed Color Basics, since that was an area that I’m a little lost with.  There is also a flickr group to watch, Mod Sampler Quilt-Along.

I forsee a lot of hand-sewing for me this week, which is not my favorite thing to do, but fabric shopping is the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Busy as a sewing bee…

I’ve been sewing up a storm this week. My poor, neglected apartment is more of a mess than usual, but you know what, I don’t care. It feels really good to be creating again.

This is my new satchel. (Don’t you think that ’satchel’ a nicer term than ‘messenger bag’?) For a while now, I’ve been wanting to make a new one as the red corduroy messenger bag that I’ve been carrying for years has become lumpy and cumborsome. Having had some time to think about it, I knew exactly what I needed and had a pretty good idea about how I wanted it to look.

The fabric I used on the exterior was labelled ‘rodeo poplin’. I’m not really sure what that meant, though I suppose it would make a good western-style shirt. The teal color goes well with all of the colors that I usually wear, unlike my old bag. The interior is Linen/Morning Glory from Amy Butler’s Lotus line. You don’t see it here, but the pockets are lined in another fabric from Lotus, Cherry/Wall Flower. There are three pockets including th large front pocket with the pleating detail. The pleat was supposed to be asymmetric, but I fear that it is not enough to look intentional. The flap doesn’t have a closure, because I hate fighting velcro or snaps when I just need to slip something inside on the go. The dimensions are perfect to hold my study materials or a knitting project, but it’s not too large to carry those times when I just need my wallet and a shopping tote. I’m oh-so-happy! I couldn’t have asked for a better bag.

 

Monday Monday

When I added myself to the Free Fabric Friday drawing over at Sew, Mama Sew the blog, an email from Kristen asking me to pick out two fabrics from Heather Ross’ West Hill collection was the last thing I expected. Which makes finding this nifty little package in my mailbox on Saturday all the more enjoyable:

Matrioshki on beige and adorable tadpoles

My entire weekend was wonderful like this. We slept in, walked around the market, made a quick trip to the library, and even caught a few garage sales. And, oh do I have a treat for Thursday! I can’t wait to share my latest find.

I also have a finished object (*gasp*):

We went over last night to meet Baby Boy and these items were gifted. The booties ended up being simple toe-up baby socks with picot edging, sans pattern. Here is also a tiny kippah for Baby to wear during the ceremony. It is crocheted from a basic Star of David pattern. I am happy to add that the family is doing well and Baby is absolutely gorgeous, tiny, and sweet.