The Colorist

So I got this done in 2 naps and one evening.  That is how I measure time. :)  That is CRAZY fast!!  My Parents are in town for the holidays and my Mom was able to help, which does speed things up significantly, but Wow, to have a completed beautiful top in 2 afternoons of work plus a little evening time is just madness!!  It looks amazing and I learned some new skills on this.




1. Spray starch is the greatest thing ever - and now I know what my Grandma smelled like.
2. Lizzy House knows how to write a legible, outstanding pattern - at no point do you need to google "tips on completing the pattern" which is an essential step with EVERY SINGLE Amy Butler pattern.  Love you Amy, but seriously.
3. Ripping fabric is how I'm cutting fabric from now on.  One little snip, and *rrrriiip* and a perfect line, so satisfying
4. Curved seams are OK, just go slow and ease it through and it will be just fine



So I'm totally thrilled.  I have some other things to work on while I wait for the backing fabric to arrive.  I hope to ship this out to a quilter, I've never done that before but I love the concentric circles and I really cannot do that on my sewing machine.

Merry Christmas and the Colorist

Merry Christmas!!

It was a happy one for me, under the tree I found this pattern!  (Actually times 2 due to some communication issues between husband and mother) But it's totally great since I want to make the baby and the big quilt more than once (depending on how hard it is...)



Anyway, after the baby went to sleep my hubby and I quick went to work picking out 30 fabrics to make the rainbow.  Here is the final selection!

Hubby wants me to make the baby one with only solids.  I think since he got me the Kona dark box for my birthday he's eligible to make requests :)

I have so many projects in the making!  I hope to share more soon.

Saturday Projects

After making myself a snazzy iPad cover, I decided to make my Mom a new one.  This one is fully washable!  It has some cute Ikea striped fabric in it, and at her request is of course lined with fleece

It fits more loosely but still cleans the front of her iPad. I have found this is a great quick project to whip on on the same Saturday that we purchased a ENORMOUS Christmas tree that we now need to decorate. It's 12 feet and amazing!

I also noticed that my husband's laptop was starting to take the finish off our kitchen table. Nothing serious yet, but I like that table and he likes to work there... SO I made him an extra large insulated place mat.


The fabric is Daisy Mae by DS for Joann, and I really thought that turquoise and navy print looked like a keyboard! It's moderately masculine and very soft.





I bought a quarter yard of the prints you see there and definitely have enough to make at least one more if not two. There is potholder material in the middle, and I just turned it right side out and zig-zagged the edges. It's not too fancy but it's getting the job done, and is machine washable.

A very productive Saturday!

I think I want to try and make a messenger bag.  Isn't it just a larger iPad holder, with a strap?  I think it's totally doable, so look for that soon!

Sexy Hexy Christmas Quilt

Back in July (I think) I bought ALOT of Kate Spain's Flurry Fabrics. I have yard pieces, and half yard pieces, I'm pretty sure I have all of them. Additionally I got flannel that coordinated. I had no plan whatsoever but wanted to make a cute Christmas quilt for Isabella.


The stack of fabric is enormous, so I think I'm going to make at least 3 quilts and the first one is Sexy Hexy by Amy Butler. 

It's a free downloadable pattern. Like all Amy Butler patterns I have (Weekender bag, Gum Drop pillow, and Honey Bun pouf) it is VERY VERY over-engineered. The directions for this quilt were no exception - 11 pages long. Let's be fair, the last 6 pages are pattern pieces but if you read down the supplies list there is so much stuff and then the directions are so involved by the time you actually get to sewing I'm pretty sure you don't care about the quilt anymore. After Googling "Sexy Hexy Love Quilt", and searching around on Flickr I realized that not many people have made this quilt, and I'm sure the 100% reason is the horrendous long-winded instructions that make this project seem much harder than it is. Luckily before I gave up and switched to something else I found this blog post, and suddenly the quilt was simple.  Here are some good guidelines:

1. Follow the instructions to assemble the pattern page first, it's clever and works well.
2. Cut out the templates A, C and D these are used to make the full sized Hexagons
3. Do not add seam allowance to the A shape, it doesn't need it and looks weird.
   -I put lightweight fusible interfacing on A - it get's appliqued and I think it looks/works better
4. Work one Hexagon at at time, cutting out one center, then six sides of template C then six of D,
   -I used a pencil and traced the shapes on the fabric then cut out with scissors

**note template D takes 1/4 yd of fabric for one hexagon, template C takes more than 1/8 but less than 1/4

5. Sew C to D six times as shown in a picture on the instructions, press, then sew them together to form the outside of the hexagon, press.
6. Applique A to the center, I used 2 pins per side (I NEVER use pins for anything so this is a big deal for me)
7. Repeat until you have seven hexagons, it's six surrounding one in the center - for planning purposes.



I like this method because you can build each hexagon as you go based on what you want the final quilt to look like.  I have only made a few, but they are pretty easy and I think look pretty awesome.



Another cool idea would be to make "string blocks"  cut out the side templates out of wonky cut - sewn together strips. 

The rest of the quilt is 1/2 hexagons which seem to be pretty straight forward and then these little side pieces which also don't seem hard.  I am apprehensive about Y seams, but I'm going to skip the directions and look on you tube.  I'll be happy to post links and tips then.

Happy Christmas Hexing!

iPad2!!

Recently my honey got me an iPad2, now it's supposed to be "ours" but he's not with it all day... Anyway I found the covers at the Apple Store to be a bit, overpriced and boring.  I was positive I could not make a good cover for it, and then I was looking on Etsy and realized, yes, yes I could.  So when my parents got an ipad2 on Black Friday I quickly whipped up this cover:



It has an open top, with an elastic-button closure. The outside is all leftover decorator weight fabric and the inside is lined in fleece. My measurements were a bit snug with all the bulk of the batting and heavier fabric not to mention the interior fleece, but the snug fit created a fantastic side effect... IT CLEANS THE FINGERPRINTS! That's right people, it cleans it all off. So I highly recommend the fleece lining. I was very happy with this, but personally feel the elastic is flimsy, and an easy point of failure that would be hard to repair. I like a flap. So I looked at this cute embroidery case I bought and modeled it much bigger. I used some of my Amy Butler Fabrics and voila!
Notice it opens revealing 2 pockets on the front, that's my smart phone on the left and my glasses and  a pen
  
I LOVE this, this is easily the best thing I have ever dreamed up and executed. Usually stuff I make w/o a pattern looks, well exactly like that. This actually looks like something you would buy.



The fit isn't quite as tight as the first case I made for my parents, and since it's lined with quilting fabric, not fleece there is very little cleaning action, but I'm less concerned about that and MUCH happier about how it fits and what it looks like. I would like to get a tutorial up since this takes about an hour to sew, but it's Christmas time and I'm super busy, but perhaps if enough of you comment... I might find the time :)

Ju-Ju-Be

Eh? What is that? WELL for those of you not in the know, Ju-Ju-Be is a brand of handbags, backpacks etc, they are specially designed with Mom's in mind and make absolutely fantastic baby bags. They use space in an efficient and practical manner that just makes a busy Mom happy, you don't have to think about fitting all the nonsense in your bag or finding it later, it's easy and intuitive.

ANYWAY as I am not a paid spokesperson for them i'll leave it at that and continue onto why we all should care :) These bags have a cult following, people LOVE them, the prints and styles are only around for a short period of time. There are people that can customize your bag, and the change pads are cannibalized for parts!

That's where we start today. My Sister-in-Law is... enthusiastic... about these bags, she has a few of them and loves them to death. I personally have two, a BFF in Cobalt Blossoms and a beQuick in Champagne Bubbles (gift from SiL). 

Tiny small Ju-Ju-Be pouches

She purchased a pile of scraps, by scraps I mean tiny pieces of the fabric the bag/change pads are made of.   In a variety of colors that were in no relation to each other.   (I really wish I had a "before" photo...)  I had on hand flannel to line the bags; I love a soft flannel lining it's extremely versatile.  After making regular style pouches, I tried sewing/clipping off the corners to make more of a "boxy" look. This is still in development, but I'm very happy with the results. All in all I made six bags, and I have some fabric left over for one possibly two more. The scraps are small and since the fabric is so stiff it can't be patched together as neatly as quilting cotton.

With the exception of the tiny Blue Bouquet that SiL kept for herself :)  The remaining bags are FOR SALE!!  Hooray!

Go get em in my Etsy shop!

Sugar Creek and the HST

I'm pretty obsessed with the DS fabrics you can purchase at Joann's Fabrics.  They are nice quality, you can use coupons, and they are something that requires collecting.  I have recently obtained 17 of the 18 prints in her new line, Sugar Creek.  (The 18th is in the mail from Etsy!)

I am a new user of Pinterest, it's super fun, and I ran into some beautiful HST quilts, and then found this tutorial.  I THEN saw this quilt on Fresh Lemons.  Between the two I was decided that my stack of Sugar Creek (with some Picnic's and Fairgrounds that I had leftover from Swoon) would shine beautifully in a pattern like this.

So I cut out a bunch of 9" triangles (I cut out a 9" square, and then cut it in half),  I then got my hands on some Kona Snow which looks nice with this.  At that point I was feeling a little stuck, and I remembered that black and white photographs of fabric help with sorting values.  So I took some pictures and did some sorting.  Ultimately coming up with this arrangement,

Clockwise from top left:  High Contrast, medium contrast, light, medium, dark

In case you're wondering the 18th fabric will be in the dark pile in the lower left corner.

You'll notice in the B&W photo it's easy to see which fabrics blend together and which ones will contrast against each other.  Since I'm pretty sure i'm going to put the white in, ala Fresh Lemon's Parisville, I will now select triangles from 2 different piles to put my blocks together.  This makes my 120 triangles WAY more manageable and much easier to pair up.

Let's get sewing!