2016 finish-along, third quarter finishes

Whew, I did it! When I set my goals for the third quarter I didn't even begin to imagine I'd finish them all, BUT I DID! Yay! Here are links to my finishes.....

My Small World is done! I'm really proud of this one. It was a major project & I enjoyed it so much.

My swap for the Triad meets Mckinney swap is done, delivered & appreciated! This was so much fun to do.

Ally's pillows are happily hanging out on her couch, or wherever college kids keep pillows! ha!

My girls have matching San Francisco Swing Dresses and they both love them. 

The Pow Wow quilt has been delivered to a sweet new baby boy in Ohio and he is enjoying it very much.

So there you have it. Third quarter was a huge success for me! I'm linking up over at A Quilter's Table.

Triad meets McKinney swap... received!

A couple of weeks ago I shared the quilt I sent to Kim in the Triad Modern Quilt guild for our swap. Well Tuesday night, it was finally our turn to receive quilts! I couldn't believe Alice, our swap queen, kept that box from NC taped up tight and opened it in front of all of us. Seriously, if that box had arrived at my house I would have peeked! No kidding.

Look how happy we all are with what we received! Those Triad gals pulled out all the stops.

Of course I was incredibly happy with the fabulous quilt I received from Katie! She took my favorite Squirrel pattern (found here, by Quiet Play), shrank it down and made not one... but FOUR squirrels!

Katie said the way the colors popped reminded her of an Andy Warhol painting, and I totally agree! such fun. 

The colors and fabrics she used are so great. This is going to make me smile every time I look at it.

There was some talk at our meeting about making this swap an annual event. I sure hope we do! It was great to connect with a sister guild. Thanks Katie! You rock!

Triad meets McKinney swap

I'm so happy I can finally share a finish (and one of my third quarter goals for the finish along!) Earlier this year, the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild (my guild, here in Texas) set up a mini quilt swap with the Triad Modern Guild in North Carolina. It was fun to be assigned a partner in another guild who I had never met! When I got Kim's info, I learned that she liked foundation paper piecing (among other things) and loved the colors "plum pink and pickle green" Hmmm! Not colors I had a lot of in my stash, so off I went shopping! Also, I had been dying to try lillyella's Take Wing pattern and this seemed like a great time to do that.

Now that Kim has received her quilt I can share it with you here! I love the way this turned out. The pattern stretched me (and perhaps proved to me that I have finally somewhat mastered paper piecing!). It's a complex pattern but totally doable if you take it one section at a time.

I took my lead from lillyella's pattern and machine quilted radiating lines around the butterfly, which matched my quilting skill level (aka beginner) and made the butterfly look like it was in motion which I loved.

I would love to make this pattern again and highly recommend it to all of you.

I can hardly wait for our September 6 meeting, where we will receive our minis from the swap!

Home

This year the theme of the Row by Row Experience is Home. I always collect a handful of the patterns from nearby shops & have been known to incorporate portions of rows into projects, but I've never actually made one of the rows before (much less made a whole quilt of them, but that's still true).  When I saw the row at Urban Spools this year, I knew I wanted to make it. Of course, the fact that it was designed by my friend Melissa made it even more special! And, I LOVED the fabrics they had chosen for the row, so I actually bought the KIT! People, that is something I NEVER EVER do.... I'm totally not a kit person. I like to put my own spin on things. So you KNOW it was awesome if I did this!

This Dallas skyline is all paper pieced (and some of the pieces were teenie tiny! scared me to death) but the pattern was super easy to follow and I love the way it came together. Dallas has been our adopted home for 14 years now, and though I miss my buddies back in the midwest, I honestly can't imagine ever living anywhere else! I may grumble a bit on the 100+ degree days, but when my pals are shoveling "white stuff" in January & freezing their noses off, I'm quite happy in the south!

And now I'm happy to have this finished row to hang in my studio. Thanks Melissa for your awesome design!

matching dresses

I haven't made matching dresses for my girls since they were little. Really little. As in, say one and seven? I do believe the last matching dresses I made for them had bunnies on them. So when they asked me to make them matching San Francisco Swing dresses in gray I thought they were nuts. And then I thought, what the heck? I mean, they live clear across the country from each other so the likelihood of them wearing them together is slim to none. 

So, the dresses are made and delivered and they both love them! Yay! Ally & I went out for a bit of a photo shoot today. She found this quote on a building that made her smile....

And Leigh Anne sent me this great shot from New York City (seriously, they have THE BEST graffiti there!)

 These dresses are my third finish in the 2016 Finish along for this quarter. I'm really happy about that. Oh, and if you need a giggle, check out these shots of Ally....

Have a wonderful day!

sewing with handwovens

I've shared before that I am enjoying incorporating my handwoven fabrics into my sewing projects. I really like combining them with purchased quilting cottons. Here's my latest, a Lola Pouch (pattern by Sotak Handmade)

Having found no real tips or examples that suit me online, I've been experimenting and have come up with a method that works for me. I thought I'd share my tips here. Maybe they will help someone else? At the very least, I will have them documented for my future projects.

First off, I learned early on from my awesome weaving friend Kathie to make use of every inch of my warp. I usually put enough warp on my loom to weave 2 or 3 dishtowels, plus extra. Once I have woven the towels, I plain weave the rest of my warp into fabric that can later be used for whatever I choose.

I am really loving weaving my 8/2 cotton yarn (very thin) onto my thicker cotton warp. It makes a sturdy fabric that still has a bit of drape. After I remove it from my loom, I zigzag the edges, wash & machine dry, just like my towels.

The trouble (not trouble really, the interesting thing) about handwoven fabric is that you can't just cut into it. The edges will unravel if you don't finish the edges first. Here's how I have done this for the bags I've been making.

First, I iron ShapeFlex 101 (SF101 my favorite interfacing) on the back of my fabric piece, and draw the pattern pieces right on the SF101 with a pencil or marker.

I set my machine to a small, tight zigzag (these are the settings that are working best for me, you'll have to experiment on your machine!) You want the zigzag to be less than a 1/4 inch wide so that it ends up in your seam allowance later on.

Now I do a zigzag stitch all the way around inside the drawn lines of my pieces.

It's a good idea to zigzag on the outside of your lines too, so that your leftover fabrics will still be useable. Even small strips can be made into bookmarks or perhaps sewn into a patchwork project. I don't want to waste even a tiny bit of fabric I have worked so hard to create!

Now I simply cut apart on the drawn lines. I like to use scissors for this part. I suppose you could use a rotary cutter if you have very good control. And your pieces are ready to be sewn into a project! 

Pow Wow baby quilt

This is my first documented finish for the third quarter of the Finish-along. I finished another before this but I can't share it just yet! Anyways, here it is, a baby quilt for the final KNOWN pregnant person in my life. It's a Pow Wow quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew. Baby's room is being decorated in black, white and gold. I used solid black Kona Cotton and white cotton with gold polka dots and triangles from Hobby Lobby. I chose to bind the quilt in black & white stripe which always makes me happy!

I did the quilting myself, just some straight lines & echo quilting in the white sections. I wish I had more confidence in quilting on my domestic machine, but this worked out pretty well.

I had grand plans for photographing this one. Our public library has some bright blue metallic walls which I figured would make the quilt really pop. And it would have. However....

The packing tape which I tried to bunch up and stick the quilt on the wall with stuck to EVERYTHING... my hands, the wall, my camera. Everything except the quilt! Ha. I got lots of shots of the quilt falling to the ground and gobs of tape stuck to the wall. sigh. So I went with the tried & true quilt holder-upper.

Hubby always does a great job, but it's not quite what I was going for! If I was more photo-editing savvy I'd photo shop out his fingers & legs. Oh well, you get the point. For the record, packing tape does not stick to quilts. At the advice of Debbie at A Quilter's Table I've ordered some industrial strength sticky velcro to try next time. Meanwhile, this little guy is in the mail.

Oh, another plus! All those flying geese (each "arrow" is made of 2 flying geese) yielded me 100 extra half square triangle blocks (2 1/2" square). Since Ally is decorating her new apartment in the same colors, I put these together into a pillow topper for her! Score! Also, I picked up a bunch of different black/white/gold fabrics to make more pillows. Stay tuned.

third quarter finish-along goals

Participating in the finish-along has been a huge help to me this year! I managed to complete all of my goals in the first and second quarter and am inspired to do it again this quarter. Here are the projects I WILL get done....

First up, this swap quilt needs to be quilted, labelled & bound before our August guild meeting, so it can be sent to my partner in the Triad meets McKinney swap. Sorry I can't reveal the colors just yet, but I'm so happy with the way it came out & I'm a tiny bit afraid to start quilting. But I shall, no worries....

This pile of lovelies is really two projects..... a PowWow baby quilt for a friend and a stack of pillows for Ally's new apartment. Both are decorating in black/white/gold which came in handy at fabric buying time....

This rather boring looking yardage of gray knit is destined to become two very cute dresses for my girls. Yes, they are getting matching dresses (I think the last time that happened they were six & infant & the dresses had bunnies on them!) Anyways, I can't share the pattern with you just yet as I have been pattern testing and it is yet to be released. Soon. Very soon.

And finally, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I WILL finish My Small World quilt top this quarter, come heck or high water! I started it with a gusto in January and have worked on it in fits & starts ever since. I love it and it needs to be finished. So there. I said it and now you can hold me to it!

So four, really five finishes for the third quarter. I think I can, I think I can...

Linking up at A Quilter's Table.

bags from handwoven fabric

Ever since I started weaving, I have been saving scraps left over at the ends of my warps knowing eventually I would turn them into "something". Often these were the experiments, trying out different colors/weights of yarn to see what worked.  Always, they were too pretty to throw away!

The other day I bought a lime green jelly clip frame, not knowing what I would do with it. When I laid it next to my handwoven leftovers from my table runner, I knew they belonged together.

You might notice this is a tad wonky. sheesh! Turns out the handwoven is quite bulky and I had a difficult time jamming it into the frame! In fact I broke my purple-thang (insert cry here) let out quite a few not-nice words and basically got glue EVERYWHERE. Oh well, it's done.

I do love the yellow lining. Really, the materials are perfect together but I am a disaster when it comes to gluey projects. Lesson learned. Again.

Next I set out to make Sotak Handmade's Foldover pouch from another of my handwoven. This time....

Perfection! Of course Svetlana's pattern is perfect, as always. The fabric was bulky and the final turning was a challenge but it adds just the right bulk to this little bag. Yay!

I'll be making more of these for sure! Tips for working with handwoven fabric:

I traced my pattern pieces onto SF101 (my favorite interfacing), Ironed in onto the back of the fabric. Next I zigzagged just inside the cutting line to prevent my fabric from unravelling and cut the pieces out on the drawn line. 

Any time I needed to cut a piece of handwoven, I zigzagged on either side of the cutting line.

It worked out great! Now, what to try next....

2nd quarter finishes

I'm so happy to report that I finished all four of my second quarter finish along projects! Yay!

First was my Riley Blake Challenge quilt which I called "at the diner". I donated this finished quilt to Alberta's Hope, the charity our Modern Guild donates to for local cancer patients. I hope it brings a smile to someone's face!

Second, was my Hattie's Dresden baby quilt, made at a super fun workshop with Lee Monroe. It has already been gifted and baby Emily is enjoying it!

My third finish this quarter is another baby girl quilt to be gifted soon. I used a pattern from McCalls Quick Quilts & I'm really happy with it! I even quilted it myself (go me!)

Finally, with just days to go, I finished up my Lost Socks Quilt.... whew!

Four big finishes this quarter! Now to create my third quarter list.

How did you do on your finishes this quarter?

linking up all of my #2016FAL posts at A Quilter's Table today

lost socks

Almost a year ago, I was sitting with my friends Joellen & Carol eating lunch at a local quilt show, planning a block swap. We had all purchased the pattern, Lost Socks  and we thought it would be fun if we all made sock blocks then swapped them among the three of us. We wanted to use our stash, so there were no parameters on sock fabric. The backgrounds were all to be low volume creams.

 After we swapped our blocks, I buttonhole stitched around all of mine on the machine, then assembled my quilt top at our guild retreat in February. It was so much fun to put them all up on the giant design wall & play with the layout! I chose not to add borders to my quilt.

I took my quilt top to Lisa and she worked her magic on the longarm. She used five different overall quilt patterns on different sections of the quilt & it looks terrific! I put the last stitches in the binding this morning.

You might also notice that it's a BIG quilt! My handy dandy photo assistant (aka hubby) was not tall enough to hold it off the ground!

My finished quilt is 64" x 80". A fun finish! Also, the fourth and FINAL finish from my second quarter finish along list! Hooray! I came in under the wire this time....

#2016FAL linking up to A Quilter's Table

bears in the wild

Another baby quilt is done.... Bjorn Bear from Elizabeth Hartman's Woodland Animals Craftsy class. This was so much fun to make! Each bear had a zillion little pieces, but with her awesome tips & tricks, it was easy to keep them all sorted and labelled.

seriously, EACH ear has 10 pieces alone!

Ally chose all of the fabrics, a mix of blue/green/brown grunge & I love them all together!

My friend Sandy quilted paw prints which is just perfect! 

Today we have a nice cloud cover but no rain, so we headed to a nearby park with Hubby's truck to snap a few pictures. It was a bit frustrating as there was quite a bit of wind...

Poor Hubby's arms were getting tired holding up the bears & waiting for the wind to die down! 

But we did manage to get some fun shots!