W.I.P. Wednesday

I'm a little slow on the W.I.P. train this morning, I see there are already 70 projects linked up! Let's see what I've all been up to...

One of the best Works in Progress ever:

~ Levi. Born 10 years ago at a tiny 5lbs15oz, you've grown up and are now entering your second decade of life. I can hardly believe it. Happy Birthday Levi!


Ongoing projects:

~ Wonky Log Cabin with Little Apples fabric - nothing has changed since last week. Can you tell I'm not really feeling this project? Some of the seams on the top ended up a bit puckery (my lovely sewing machine up to its old tension tricks) so the top doesn't lay totally flat. I will eventually to do a whole bunch of dense quilting on this one and hope that will help! I must say, that little squirrel is very cute. :)


New Projects:

~ I made a little something for the Giveaway Day coming up at Sew Mama Sew on December 12th. Can't show it until then but let's say it uses some more of my Hometown scraps.

~ I have a few super secret projects in the works, will only show this for now....more to come after the holidays.

Flower Garden Charity Quilt

I have finally decided what to do with this little quilt. I made it this summer, before I started this blog, so let me back up a little. I had won a fat quarter bundle of Pick a Bunch organic cotton fabric from Pink Chalk Fabrics (which was actually kind of funny because I didn't even realize that by opening the newsletter in my email, I was entered to win....and I did!). I thought and thought about what to do with it, and finally settled on paper pieced hexagons. We were going on a road trip to California (ahem...24 hours in the car, each way) and I figured it would be perfect for working on in the car, so that's what I did. I sewed and sewed and sewed as we drove, making pretty much all of these hexagons in the car as we traveled. Once home, I hand sewed them into flowers, and then all together into one unit. I appliqued the whole thing onto a piece of white cotton fabric and did all sorts of echo quilting around the borders. I love how it turned out......


...BUT once finished I realized that this was not a quilt that would be useful in our home. I didn't want to hang it on the wall, and it's really too small, at about 32" square, to actually be used as a quilt, and let's be real, it's rather girly, shall we say, and I'm the only female in this house!! The quilt has sat on the hope chest in our bedroom for months now, and I've finally decided that I am going to send it off to Bumble Beans. I'm sure it will be well loved by some little girl out there.

Linking up with the following:
Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings
Sew Cute Tuesday @ Creative Itch
Tuesday Time Out @ Reasons To Skip the Housework
TOO Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways

Modern Christmas Mini (+ a very mini quilt hanging tutorial)

I'll say right off the bat that the inspiration for this mini quilt came straight from Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations. Her version can be found here. I just loved the idea - creating something that looks like Christmas, but is not covered in candy canes and reindeer! Don't get me wrong, I love all the Christmas fabrics I've been seeing around, but since I don't have any, this was a fun way to go. I went through my scraps and found 6 reds and 6 greens that I thought went together well, then followed this Circle of Geese tutorial.

I already went on and on about the block and my experience with paper piecing in this post so I won't repeat myself. On to the photos!


Okay, now a mini tutorial. I'm never sure what's the easiest way to make a quilt wall-hangable (new word... :) I've used this tutorial from Comfortstitching, which worked pretty well in the end but I found it tricky to execute and wanted to come up with something easier. My mind went to skinny ribbon, and I wondered if there was some way to machine stitch it onto the back of the quilt at the same time as the binding. This is what I came up with....

1. Attach binding to quilt, completely as normal. Nothing unusual in this step. This photo obviously shows the front.
2. The back of quilt with binding attached.
3. Decide where you want your hanging loops to be. This quilt is very small so I only used two loops, placed about 2 inches in from each edge. Cut skinny ribbon to form loops. I cut roughly 5" pieces, and trimmed later. On the back side of the quilt, form a loop with the ribbon so it extends about 1/4" lower than the line of stitching from the binding attachment. I didn't measure, just eyeballed it. Not shown in the photo, but I used a little piece of masking tape to hold the ribbon in place while I stitched.
4. Carefully stitch over the ribbon directly on top of stitches from binding attachment. Stitch and backstitch a couple of times over the ribbon to make sure it's really secure.
5. Trim ribbon flush with edge of quilt.
6. Proceed with binding as usual, by machine or by hand (my preferred method). When hand stitching binding, stitch right through ribbon as well as fabric when you get there.
7. Ta-da!!

P.S. Yes, my ribbon is pink. That's all I had in super skinny ribbon and I figured that it wouldn't be visible anyways so why not!

Linking up with the following:

{Sew} Modern Monday @ Canoe Ridge Creations
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways
Manic Monday @ Sew Happy Geek
Made With Love @ Sew Chatty
Made by You Monday @ Skip to my Lou
Little Quilt Monday @ Pieceful Life

W.I.P. Wednesday (+ paper piecing tips)

First off, make sure to head on over to Pings and Needles ~ she is having an Accuquilt Go! Baby giveaway!! I have entered many of these giveaways and am still hoping that one day I'll win!!

I am totally copying Megan's non-Christmas Christmas mini quilt! A project that gives the Christmas feel without the use of overtly Christmas fabrics. The fabrics I used were all from my scrap bag, some from past projects of mine, and a few that I received in a bag of scraps from Debbie of 'A Quilter's Table'.....recognize any, Debbie? ;) I am in the process of hand quilting this, and will also be trying a new method to hang the quilt on the wall, which I feel like I'm inventing but maybe someone else has already done it! Stay tuned for that.

I had been wanting to try the Circle of Geese block for a while, just because it looks so interesting and fun! I'd tried paper piecing once before (well, twice, but on the same project, my summer sampler quilt) and while it was fun and paper piecing really does help you to achieve amazing and precise results, I was put off by the amount of wasted fabric. This circle of geese block was enough to draw me back in though, and give it another try! Again, I feel like I wasted quite a bit of fabric but everything was from my scrap bag this time so it didn't feel quite as bad as with the summer sampler where I was cutting into yardage specifically for that project. So with that said, a few paper piecing tidbits, from my limited experience...

• the tutorial I linked above has you pre-punch the lines on the paper using your sewing machine with no thread. I highly recommend this! It makes the process of folding the paper back so much easier, and also helps later on with tearing the paper away.
• set your machine to a very short stitch length ~ VERY important, if you want to be able to easily remove the paper, which I do!
  
• next time I will print an extra paper template, cut out each piece and lay them out on my fabric, cutting each with about a 1/2" allowance on all sides, to make the most of my fabric (ie. less waste!). This, as opposed to using approximately 3"x5" pieces of fabric, as the tutorial suggests, which clearly works but if you're all about conserving supplies like I am, I would recommend the former (which the tutorial also does mention).
• mark the piece numbers on the unprinted side of your paper as well as the printed side. Not crucial, but helps things go more smoothly in my opinion.
• after each step of adding a new fabric and pressing it, trim the excess fabric that extends beyond your paper template (only do this AFTER pressing) - the above tutorial doesn't suggest this, but I did it as I found it made things a lot neater and less unwieldy to work with.
• the entire circle of geese block is made up of 4 smaller blocks. I did not remove the paper until after I had sewn the top row together, and the bottom row together. Therefore the only seam I sewed without paper was the final seam.

I hope someone finds this helpful. I mainly followed the above tutorial but also referenced a few others as not everyone does it the same way and it was good to have options and figure out what worked best for me.

The only other project I am currently working on is the Little Apples wonky log cabin mini quilt. I have finished adding "logs" to it, so now what's left is basting, quilting & binding!

Monday Finishes!

I have two finishes to share today, and neither falls into the quilt category. We're talking pillows here! First off, the third (out of three!) throw cushion for our bed is finished. This one is a non-HST design, but it's fun and it still fits with the others. The ring of stars design came from this tutorial, and again, for the construction of the pillow cover itself I used this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew, which is very simple but yields great results. And the final "credit is due" for this project goes to Krista of Poppyprint for her concentric circles quilting tutorial.


The second finish is a seat cushion for my sewing chair. This was take two on the project, and while it's done and it turned out fairly well unless you look closely, it was a tricky project to complete and I'm not sure if I would do it again. I still feel like I may do a bit of tweaking, like maybe some edge stitching around the top and bottom of the pillow (though I don't think it would be called edge stitching, not sure how else to describe it, basically creating a very mini faux piped edge by pinching the edge of the gusset & top and stitching it together? Anyone know what I mean? :). But it's bright and fun and I'm happy to have a cushy something to sit on!


Incidentally, the chair itself was also a little project of mine. I looked and looked for a solid wood chair to refinish and use for a sewing chair, and finally found this one at our local recycling/junk store for a few dollars. It used to look like this.....a photo clearly taken on a much warmer day than today!

Happy Monday everyone!

Linking up with the following:
{Sew} Modern Monday @ Canoe Ridge Creations
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways
Manic Monday @ Sew Happy Geek
Made With Love @ Sew Chatty
Made by You Monday @ Skip to my Lou
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

The people have spoken....

I tallied up the "votes" from this post and decided that since I asked, I'll go with what the majority voted for! It's all ready for a little quilting....

Modern (+ Reversible!) Table Topper

Debbie @ "A Quilter's Table" is hosting a Thanksgiving giveaway on her blog, centering around the idea of 'the table' and anything related to it! This table runner is my contribution to her linky party.

I started out on this project working on the wonky stars. They turned out really fun, especially in these bright colours. Check! Next came the backing...I tend to do a plain fabric backing on my quilts, but since I STILL had so much leftover (oh, by the way, this fabric was already leftover from my Summer Sampler Quilt, I didn't really want to still have leftovers!) I decided to do a pieced backing. My original idea for the back came from this tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts, and it went from there. I did a lot of trimming and wasting because the blocks weren't ending up wonky enough for my liking, but in the end I absolutely love how the back ended up, maybe even more than the front. So I'm calling it reversible and everybody is happy!

Oh, and by the way, I still have fabric leftover. :) The only fabric I purchased for this project specifically was for the binding, which I also now have leftovers of!

{Finished size: 19" x 33"}
{Quilted by: me, using organic wavy lines}

W.I.P. Wednesday

It's W.I.P. Wednesday again! Let's see what's all going on....

Ongoing projects:

~ The wonky star table runner is coming along nicely. The top is finished and I'm working on the backing...a pieced back this time! In fact, I'm not sure if I'm going to like the front or back more, maybe we'll just call it reversible! While I prefer to take photos outside, it is a super blustery day today therefore indoor photos will have to do for this week!

{front}

{I managed to tape these to the side of my house, outside, and quickly took a picture between gusts of wind.....this one gives a much better indication of the colours than the first photo ~ these are the blocks that will somehow make up the backing}

Edited to add: Since I started writing this post, I have made more progress on the runner, in fact all that's left is the binding, which I do not have fabric for yet. Here's a peek.....

~ No progress this week on the Little Apples wonky log cabin mini quilt

~ HST pillows, two down, one to go. I'm asking for your help....I can't decide which of the remaining 3 blocks to use for the third cushion for our bed, so in the comments please vote 1, 2, or 3. :) The other two will still be used for something else, just not sure what yet.

Up and coming projects:

~ After the sad outcome with my Little Apples fabric chair pillow from last week, take two on the Perfectly Portable Cushion pattern is in the works. I am going to try it without piping this time, as round 1 with piping for me was a miserable failure, and rather than a zipper I am going to do a velcro closure around the back of the cushion, hopefully as invisibly as possible! The fabric I am going to use ~ Genevieve flowers on brown by Henry Glass Fabrics, on clearance at the fabric store. Can't get away from that blue/red combo!

{haven't ironed this fabric yet....oops!}

That's about it from me for this week. Be sure to click the link below and visit the weekly W.I.P. roundup over at Freshly Pieced!

Mini Quilt Challenge!

We are heading out of town for the next two days so I am posting my mini quilt for the challenge a day early!

{Little House Mini Quilt ~ 11.5" x 11.5"}

I had a lot of fun making this! Especially after finishing such a huge project it was very satisfying to do a project that could be started and finished in a matter of a couple of hours. The planning took a bit longer, and the hand quilting too, but the actual sewing really was that quick!


I used a little tutorial at Comfortstitching to figure out how to construct my little house. I did the drawing as Aneela suggested, but didn't actually cut out pattern pieces like she does. Once I had my drawing, since I created it on graph paper, I simply counted the grid squares and used that to figure out how big to cut my pieces. There is nothing terribly special about the fabric I used - some were scraps from other projects, the sky section is regular old muslin, and a few of the others I picked up as cheap fat quarters from Wal-Mart of all places! They are not the greatest quality, kinda thin, but they were cute and for this project, it worked!!


I also tried hand quilting for the first time on this little project, using size 8 Perle Cotton. It was easy to figure out, and a lot of fun! I outlined the house/windows/door shapes, and then did some random swirls in the sky section. I like it and will definitely hand quilt again....small projects only though!

Linking up with {Sew} Modern Monday @ Canoe Ridge Creations

W.I.P. Wednesday

So remember how every week I have been mentioning the Little Apples fabric that was coming my way? And I built all this suspense, not telling what I was intending it for? Well it came, is adorable, and I happily starting cutting away and making the mystery project.....the Perfectly Portable Cushion....for my sewing chair, and let's just say it did not work out. My piping was not good, the zipper didn't go in well, the gusset didn't quite fit ~ I knew I would not be happy with it. I pulled out the piping to salvage as much of the aqua fabric as I could, but now to use the fabric for something else had limitations because the fat quarters that I had, had largely been cut up. In the end I decided on a wonky log cabin with a fussy cut center, as big as I ended up wanting it to be, to hang on the wall at the end of our otherwise plain and dark hallway. I think it will be fun! So even though my original idea didn't work, it's not all a loss. I followed Quilt Dad's wonky square in square log cabin tutorial.

{the log cabin so far - will probably still add a few more rounds - currently about 20" across}

Also in the works is a table runner for our kitchen table, out of leftovers from my Summer Sampler. The plan is a wonky star pattern, in the style of this, this, and this. Pieced wonky, and arranged randomly. Is anyone else like me in that it takes a LOT of planning to be random?? I have a whole drawing showing the placement and sizes of the stars. Does that nullify the randomness?? ;-) For the stars, I'm using this tutorial from Silly Boo Dilly.

The stars I have finished so far....



I'm sensing a red/aqua theme here this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Hometown Throw Pillow #2

This one was an easy finish. The pillow top was already complete, it was just a matter of sewing the back on and stuffing the pillow form inside. Pillow #1 had yellow accent stitching, this one has red. Not sure which one I like better! The original idea for this HST layout was sent to me by Rebecca Lynn, from this Flickr photo.




Linking up with the following:

Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory
Sew Cute Tuesday @ Creative Itch
TOO Cute Tuesday @ Funky Polkadot Giraffe

The end of the Swoon adventure

Finished. And I love it. A lot. All of those bits that frustrated me in the process, the parts where I made "mistakes" in the piecing and quilting, as I suspected none of those are evident now that it is complete, it's just a bunch of Hometown Swoonery goodness. Thanks to Camille Roskelley for such an awesome pattern, to the girls at Sweetwater for such lovely fabric to work with, and to all of you for your kind and supportive comments along the way. Without further ado, the photos....

{The test drive.....hehehe}

Linking up with the following:

{Sew} Modern Monday @ Canoe Ridge Creations
Sew Darn Crafty @ Sew Many Ways
Manic Monday @ Sew Happy Geek
Made With Love @ Sew Chatty
Made by You Monday @ Skip to my Lou
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Handmade Tuesday @ Ladybug Blessings
Tuesday Time Out @ Reasons To Skip The Housework
Made by ME @ JAQS Studio