Green Jeans Quilt (Finished project!)

      Hooray! I'm so glad to say that I finished sewing the blanket edging for the jean quilt I have been working on for a while now. I have made at least five twin sized jean quilts and one queen sized one over the years. I really like the blue-green look of this one. The back is a blue-green wool that I got from an elderly neighbor who was moving. It is pieced in a few places to make it the right size. Normally with denim quilts I just do two layers because the fabric is so heavy. For this one, since the wool was lighter weight I decided to do a middle layer of fleece that I had. I tied the three layer together with embroider threads.

I arranged the colors and sewed the top in a weekend. Then I got the great idea to hand embroider our friend's dogs on there. The longest part definitely was the binding because I did not have enough wool to fold over top. I made strips of fabric and ironed the seam allowance under so I could just pin the edging on and sew it. I used a blanket stitch and I think it looks great. 

Even though it took a while I think it is definitely worth doing it "right" and having handsewn details.

I finished the binding when we were on a weekend trip. We stopped to take pictures on the bleachers in Irrigon Oregon. (Mike's hometown).

I have a problem sometimes of making things and giving them away right away without proper photos. My Ravelry page is pretty sad because I dont have photos for most of my projects. Oh well. I am trying to learn to document things better. Yay!

          

Next projects: 

Baby blanket. Squares are cut but i need to lay it out and sew.
Sewing the Sorbetto and Hazel that I have cut

Colette's Sorbetto and Hazel

More Colette Patterns prep work. I cut out this light green and white floral fabric for the Sorbetto top a few weeks ago. My mom is borrowing my sewing machine right now so I have been doing just prep work for projects. Today I cut out pieces for the Hazel dress also by Colette. It's black and white gingham. The fabric is pretty lightweight, so I may need to line it or find the right slip. I know gingham is good when you need to find the grain of the fabric weave. This pattern has some pieces of the bodice that are sewn on the bias so I'm excited to see what difference it makes with the checks on the bias. I have never really sewn with stripes, but someday I plan to. I also downloaded the Sencha pattern to hopefully make it some day. I guess I figure if I can make several patterns by Colette Patterns sucessfully I will learn a lot and it will help me with other pattern brands later that I feel are generally too big when I sew my size.

An update: working on the jean quilt and I am inches away from finishing the hand stitched blanket-stitch binding. I am really excited to finish, photograph it, and give it to our friend.  Then I can move on to other projects!! Baby blanket, other quilts in the works, and actually sewing the above patterns. I feel like this is going to be a productive summer!

So pretty

Just a view of the tree in my yard!

Wedding Pillowcases

 I have made about 5 sets of Wedding Pillowcases for friends. Usually with favorite animals or something.  I made some for my cousin and her husband the last month or so. I have a set of vintage embroidery patterns of State Birds. I purchased some vintage pillowcases from Etsy (I normally just thrift for them, but I was running out of time). I then chose their birth-states (hopefully that works for them! haha, I know they have moved around some) and started sewing. I do love embroidery and how creative and colorful it can be. I also like it because it can have sort of a paint-by-number aspect

 Illinois for Joseph. (Northern Cardinal)

North Dakota for Karen. (Western Meadowlark - same as Oregon's!)

Ta-Da! I think they are fun, and I hope they like them. Happy wedding! 

Springtime

One more glimpse of spring. I bought some flowers and planted them in a hanging basket. I also washed our windows and did a little spring cleaning. Yay!

Crafting dreams: I bought digital versions of Colette Pattern's Sencha and violet?? They are both Beginner patterns, which hopefully will help. I then spent a while trying to get them to print the right size and print all the pages of the versions I wanted. It is very true I have too many projects going on. But slowly some of them get finished. I just really hope some day to sew at least 1/3 - 1/2 of my wardrobe. I don't really have a desire to sew jeans but dresses and skirts and blouses sound good. I think it's hard because if you sew it yourself and then grow out of it (size-wise or style-wise) it seems hard to pass it on. 

Currently working on: I sewed one side of the denim quilt border and then cut more squares for the baby quilt.

PS: trying out a  blogger ap from my phone so I can post more often. Not quite sure yet how it all works. 

Spring?

We were on vacation for a few days. Flew to Indiana for a wedding. Now back home hoping to get some crafting done! Lately I'm so tired from work I can't work on anything in the evening.  Here is a glimpse of spring! Time to get started on dinner and clean up a little.

Squares!!

4x4 squares for a baby quilt! I have more to cut and then I will figure out the layout.

Feather Day Dress

My friend bought a Craftsy class for the Tia Dress pattern and asked for some help with it. She has done some home sewing, and alterations of her clothes. The pattern was a little more complicated than I had ever done, with piecing the bodice and lining it.

We got together a few times to buy the fabric, cut out the pattern and started construction. There were a few confusing spots, perhaps because we didn't watch the video more times. She decided to not put on the sleeves, and I think it looks good without them. She also didn't put on the pockets because we weren't sure the pocket shape would show up well due to the bold pattern.

Anyway, the dress is almost done besides the hem. She wants to shorten it perhaps to knee-length. 

We both learned a lot from making the dress, and I may look for my own craftsy class sometime after I finish up some projects. 

With learning a lot, I'm sure if we did it a second time we would do several things differently. (We got the zipper in but it could have been put in better with the right zipper foot). I'm also pretty sure we did the lining incorrectly, but what we did worked okay and still fits. 

Anyway, we are both grateful it fits her and that she likes it and that it was all worth it in the end!!! The patterened fabric is very forgiving and hides a few mistakes. 

 We worked well together, so I look forward to our next project whatever it may be. It did speed up time, like cutting out the pattern quicker and being able to have one person sewing and the other one ironing at the same time. Plus (the best part), it gave us several excuses to hang out and chat more often than normally.

One thing we wished we'd had when making the dress was a sewer's ham. Today I found a tutorial online so I printed the pattern and will make one sometime. I'm not sure about filling it with sawdust and will probably try using wool scraps.

Today I am embroidering pillowcases and working on binding the denim quilt. (Photos to follow when I can share them, they are both gifts).

Watching: North & South
Listening: Knitting Pipeline podcast

New stash items!

Just thought I'd share some recently purchased fabric. On the left is a white and light blue/teal print that I'm hoping to make a Sobetto top by Colette Patterns. The black and white Gingham is for Colette's Hazel dress. The kitty fabric I got for free and maybe will go into a future baby quilt. With some tax return money I got an invisible zipper foot, so I am hoping that will make zippers much more easy to put in.

The yarn, hand-dyed by my friend at Bumblebirch... so pretty. It is fingering weight and I am going to look for a perfect project for it. I also just ordered a yarn winder to make center-pulled cakes. I have a swift already, so I will be set!

Still working on the denim quilt. More photos later.
Happy Valentines day!! (We're making strawberry waffles with whipped cream for dinner!)

Snow Days

Yesterday work was closed due to snow that has been here for the last few days. I spent part of the day sewing a quilt in my new studio space. (I'm not sure if I shared yet that I moved upstairs to a new area). I love the light in the room, and the red carpet that already has stains on it. Mainly I love that there is floorspace and I can lay out quilts. There are other roommates, but they are on the other side of the room for the most part and we seem to rarely be there at the same times.

Denim quilt for a friend. I'm planning on using a black fleece fabric for the backing. It will just be the two layers. I may embroider a little bit on a few denim squares, we'll see... (I have an idea, just not sharing it yet). I also started cutting jeans/cords for 2 other quilts for friends... Yay!! I love how simple they can be and I love making useful items for friends (especially if it is from their own old jeans...

I have More! quilts on the brain. Baby quilt for a friend... Perhaps a medium-sized hexagon quilt? I have been favoriting things in pinterest. I don't know yet what colors.

Also I have cut many black and white quilt triangles for a quilt and was going to go with a pattern I have in a book. It is hard to describe but sort of plays with 4 values of light to dark. It was hard to lay out as the values of the patterns kept changing (being relative in value to the fabric I placed next to it) I think I will instead go with a chevron idea which will be easier since I can just play with lights and darks. I am already much more excited about finishing that quilt. It doesn't seem so daunting.

Here is some snow!!




We had about 5 inches or so, it's hard to tell... it seems deeper some places. I'm definitely glad I have friend's kids I can borrow to hang out with in the snow. I also did a tiny bit of tobogganing. And jumped on a trampoline with snow on it.


Podcasts listened to:
Stash & Burn
Stuff You Missed in History
The Moth
This American Life (Beach episode!)