Guest Post: Sewing Back to School

Hop on over to Sew Sweetness!  Sara has graciously asked me to take part in her 30 day Sewing Back to School series of posts.  Today you can learn everything you ever wanted (and likely didn't want) to know about binding! Check it out here.

WIP Wednesday {9.7.2011}

Wednesday?  Already?  As if the weeks don't seem to fly by already, these holiday weekends really throw things off!  Here's what's new from the sewing room...

New Projects

Amy Butler Weekender Bag

Bandwagon, here I come!  My pattern just came in the mail today, and I'm itching to get working on this bad boy.  I'm taking everyone's lessons to heart, and plan on reading, reading again, and possibly reading backwards the directions before starting...

In Progress 

FTLOS

Thank you everyone for your positive encouragement and feedback on this little guy.  I am mid way through quilting this mini, and am liking it much more with the quilting.  My partner is fairly quiet, so I'm heavily relying on her mosaic which would lead me to believe this is up her alley!

FWQAL

My blocks are slowly growing week by week and consuming my design wall!  This week I completed blocks 27-30.  More on this weeks blocks here.

Birdie Stitches

I finished up March's Birdie Stitches block this week.  I felt it was needing a little something extra, so I added some extra flowers using Clover and Violets Embroidery 101.

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 3

Completed Projects: 0

In Progress: 9

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

FWQAL

Birdie Stitches QAL

Solid Spiderweb quilt

Weekender Bag

September Bee Blocks

Pillow Swap

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

Be sure to stop over at Freshly Pieced and add your WIP!

farmers wife

Since the weather decided to be uber crappy yesterday, and the hubby was working, I got to spend some quality time with my sewing machine on my day off.  I tackled a few more farmers wife blocks among other things.  I am really impressed with myself that I am still just as eager to work on these little guys each week as I was when I started!  I find that I tend to have quilty ADD when spending too long on one project, but these are certainly an exception.

Block #27 Darting Birds

This block took me forever.  And yes, if you look closely, its backwards.  I paper pieced this block (templates found here), and I have to say, while paper piecing gives nice clean perfect points, and avoids those templates, it sure leaves a ton of fabric waste (at least when I do it), and isn't all that much quicker.  And my blocks always turn out backwards.  It takes far too much brain power to figure out the mirror image, it was already a puzzle to figure out how the pieces fit together to make the darn block, let alone do it in mirror image?  No thanks.  Anyways, I do like the way this block turned out, I used some Denyse Schmidt from her new line for Joann's and the yellow is Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda.

Block #27 Duck and Ducklings

I decided to go back to using the templates for the rest of  the blocks, and I  think I just like it more.  I'll likely still use the paper piecing templates occasionally, but, and I never thought I'd say this, I think I prefer the templates!  This block used some Innocent Crush and the yellow is a Moda print.

Block #29 Economy

Ahhh.  Easy peasy.  I finished this block and said "thats it??"  Seriously, took me far longer to cut the pieces out than to actually piece the blocks.  I wish I had picked better fabrics.  This is just blah to me.  I may actually remake this one in fabrics I like more.  Maybe.  More Denyse Schmidt and the pink is Soire'e by Lila Tueller.

Block #30 End of Day

Since the previous two blocks were relatively simple, I added in a fourth block this week, which was also fairly simple and straight forward.  More new Denyse Schmidt (can you tell I just picked up a few of these fabrics on my latest Joann's run??), some Sunkissed, and some It's a Hoot!

30 blocks done, 81 more to go!  My design wall is quickly filling up with these little guys...I can hardly imagine when I'll have more blocks than fit on my wall!  Slowly but surely... 

weekend update

Happy Labor Day weekend!  In between family picnics and get togethers, I've found a little time to squeeze in some sewing.  I've turned my attention to my mini quilt for my partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap.  I've had this chevron pattern in mind for a while now, and had to see it through in fabric, but I'm not sure I'm thrilled.

What do you think??  It's quite simple and I sort of wish I had made the chevrons a little smaller.  It does go along with my partners mosaic, but I'm just on the fence about it.  I sort of have another idea swimming around in my head, should I just scrap this and start with idea #2?  I think I'm going to go ahead and quilt this and see if my opinion changes, but I'm not overly optimistic.

Changing gears here for a moment...what can endless yards of ridiculously stiff interfacing, 5 yards of cording, and yards and yards of home dec weight fabric mean?  Indeed it means I've caught the bug.  Yes, the Weekender Bag bug!  Seeing all these beauties all over blogger land had me thinking I just had to have one of these guys.  We have a vacation coming up in 5 weeks (not that I'm counting or anything) and this may just make an awesome carry on bag.  Now just to wait for the pattern to arrive, and I'll be off, wish me luck!

What have you been up to this holiday weekend??

WIP Wednesday {8.31.2011}

Is tomorrow really September?  This is blowing my mind right now, where exactly has the summer gone??  This week has been a little of this and a little of that...here's what I've been up to!

Completed Projects

Rocco's Garden Fence quilt

This was my big finish of the week, Rocco's Garden Fence quilt is on his way to him as we speak!  More on this quilt here.

Ongoing Projects

Bee Blocks

I sat down last night to work on my bee blocks, and realized that two of my bee's had ended in July?  Whaaat?  A year has gone by already??  Our Simply Strings Bee goes until October, and then I will be bee-less.  Anyone know of any modern bees starting up?

Anyways, this block is for Becky.  She wanted scrappy fan blocks based on this quilt, and wrote up this great tutorial if anyone is interested in the process.  She wanted things really scrappy, so instead of sending us her scraps, she sent us each a fat quarter of fabric to keep, and asked that we use our own scraps to make the blocks.  I think this idea is genius!  Can't wait to see what this quilt looks like.   

Solid Spiderweb quilt

As I was doing a major clean up of my sewing room this weekend, I dug out my spiderweb blocks I received from the Solids Bee, Sew Fun Bee and Simply Strings and threw them up on the design wall to see what I had.  I am so so loving these blocks!  I need to make more, I'm thinking at least 7 more blocks for a good snuggle sized quilt, but this has now jumped on the to do list.

Birdie Stitches

This is February's block.  Too stinkin cute.  I think I have found my new favorite portable project.  Embroidery it is!

Farmer's Wife

I now have completed  blocks 1-26.  More on this weeks blocks here. 

This Weeks Stats

New Projects: 1

Completed Projects: 2

In Progress: 6

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap}

FWQAL

August Bee Blocks

Rocco's Garden Fence Quilt

Birdie Stitches QAL

Solid Spiderweb quilt

UFO Quilt tops (maybe, one day...)

Postage Stamp quilt top

Central Park quilt top

back in the saddle

The farm and I have been away from each other for a week or two now, so I was very happy to spend some quality time working on a few blocks this weekend.

Block # 24 Country Path

This week, I took a hint from twin fibers who pointed me in the direction of paper piecing templates for all of the Farmers Wife blocks.  I had seen Lee mention this in her FW post last week.  On Yahoo there is a Farmers Wife Sampler group that has the templates for all the Farmers Wife blocks, so I decided why not give it a try!  

Now, I don't know that I will piece all the blocks this way, but for this weeks blocks, I'm a huge huge fan.  Don't compare this block too closely to the block in the book, because I messed up the color order!  It took until about half way through block #26 before I got the hang of the whole mirror image thing with paper piecing.  I'm still happy with this block, so I'm not going to change it.  

Block #25 Cups and Saucers

I don't know what it is about this block, but I just really like it.  Again, I paper pieced this block, with no worries about the mirror image thing, as its the same frontwards as it is backwards.  I used some Amy Butler Love fabric that I received from the lovely DeeRoo G in the DQS 11, and some American Jane pin dot fabric I picked up from my LQS for $5 a yard!

Block #26 Cut Glass Dish

Again, don't compare this block to the book, because its not the same either!  My triangles are pointing in the wrong direction.  I think as I was piecing tiny minuscule triangle 40 our of 48 that I figured out if I turn the paper over and plan where my colors should go, magically things work out better!  D'Oh.  I was really happy with how this block turned out though.  I used some Riley Blake and Alexander Henry Heath in Metal, and some random fabric I had laying around from Joanns.  

Again, I don't think I will paper piece all the blocks from here out, but you can bet when I come across these 90 bazillion tiny triangles I will be heading towards the paper piecing templates.  Not in a million years could I have gotten all those points to line up just so piecing them regularly.  

Here are blocks 1-26.  Almost 1/4 of the way done!!  That's exciting and very very intimidating at the same time, as there's a whole lotta blocks left to make!

Garden Fence Quilt

Rocco's Garden Fence Quilt is complete!  This quilt is based on the pattern by Cindy of Hyacinth Quilt Designs. I just love this pattern to pieces, and am not quite finished playing around with this design just yet...(wink wink).  This quilt is a commissioned quilt for baby Rocco that was requested by two friends I work with.  As per their request, I used blues, browns and I added some greens in "non baby" prints, with white sashing.  I just love the way these colors work together, they should work quite well as a baby quilt, and work long into boy-hood.  

As for the quilting, I used one of my favorites, an allover meandering stippling in white thread.  

On my last trip to one of my local LQSs, I spied this Sweetwater Pure argyle print, and it literally jumped into my arms almost subconsciously, as it is the absolute most perfect fabric for the back of this quilt.  Rocco's mom is apparently quite "preppy", and what is more preppy than an argyle print??  I made sure to grab some extra to add to my stash as well.

My co-workers also requested that I embroider Rocco's name on the quilt.  I always get so nervous when I go to machine embroider on a quilt, I am absolutely terrified I will set it up wrong and ruin the quilt I spent all that time on!  Aside from being ever so slightly off center, I'm happy with how the embroidery turned out, whew!

This quilt will be on its way to Rocco next week, welcome baby Rocco!! 

Quilt Stats:

Name: Rocco's Garden Fence Quilt

Size: approx. 45" x 45"

Fabrics: Assorted designer/quilt shop quality fabrics (Kate Spain Verna, Denyse Schmidt Picnics and Fairgrouds, Joel Dewberry, AMH Good Folks, MoMo It's a Hoot!, among others) Kona White 

Binding: Brown with white geometric circles (from LQS)

Quilting: All-over meandering stipple in white Gutermann thread