Saturday, April 29, 2017

weaving camp in the city

I'm home (did you miss me?)! Once again I ran off to Charlotte to weave with my friend Kathie. She hash tagged our photos #weavingcampinthecity and I love it! We always have a great time together, weaving of course, but also chatting, watching lots of baseball and drinking a bit of wine. It was a wonderful week.

Part of the fun is that Kathie lets me weave on her floor loom, which enables me to learn new things and try weave patterns that are not possible on my rigid heddle loom.

Warping the loom is a much bigger process than I am used to with lots of steps...


Yes, I did let Kathie crawl around on the floor to tie up the heddles. Honestly, I was afraid I'd never get back up off the floor! HA! 

Finally, I got to weaving (I think it was day three!) I had chosen this diamond pattern which is by far the most detailed pattern I've ever done. I wove about half of my warp with the dark teal, then the second half in red.
I had a little bit of warp left at the end so I decided to play with some neutrals.
I ended up with this lovely piece of fabric which will become new pillows for our sofa in the next few days.

The last day we took a field trip to find this billboard (did you see it in the first photo?). Kathie has her work featured on an actual billboard this year! HOW COOL IS THAT???


The week was exactly what I've been needing! A bit of an escape. Now back to reality! What have you been up to?





Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Liberty Dainty Tote

I'm still working my way through the glorious bundle of Liberty I bought last year. After piecing a quilt top, I had little pieces left over, just big enough for 1/2" hexies. I combined them with a solid aqua and soon I had this pretty panel...
in my usual fashion, I had no plan for it! Then I realized it was the perfect size to incorporate into a dainty tote. I hadn't made one of these in ages and it's my favorite little bag to make. I ended up cutting the panel in half so I could feature it on both sides of my tote. I lined the cut edge up with the top edges of the background panel and hand appliquéd all the way around the hexies.
I used a dark, denim blue grunge for the background and a blue & white check for the binding.

More Liberty Lawn for the handles, side gussets and top zipper placket. 
I'm so in love with this little tote! Oh, and this is finish #2 in the second quarter of the 2017 finish-along!





Tuesday, April 11, 2017

bitsy boxes

This weekend I had some fun pattern testing for my friend Natalie over at Ticklegrass Designs. I added some props to the picture so you can see just how tiny her latest bags are!
The Bitsy Box pattern is now available as a PDF here. Seriously people, you need to make a few of these! They are so much fun, so quick (under an hour to make each one) and adorably cute at 2 1/2 inches cubed.
Wouldn't it be fun to fill one of these with binder clips for a sewing pal? or tiny animal toys for a child? 
Really, the possibilities are endless. I plan to make tons more. You probably should make some too.




Saturday, April 8, 2017

placemats and towels

I had a fun bridal shower to attend today for the daughter of a good friend. She had tried to make off with Mom's hand woven dish towels last time she was home, so I knew I needed to start off her gift by weaving her a set of towels of her own. Then I decided to make her a set of placemats to go with them.
My local quilt shop was selling some of the cap sets (these are the samples the sales reps bring when they are selling new fabrics) of Sweetwater's Sunday Supper line and I just loved it! I bought most of what they had, went home & started cutting 3 1/2" squares. It's really the perfect line for placemats!

I quilted a crosshatch in two colors on my Janome and I love the way they turned out
She was very happy with her gift!
And guess what? I had enough fabric for four more placemats!
And I still have some more fabric left over for another day!
This is my first finish for the second quarter of the 2017 finish-along.







Thursday, April 6, 2017

Riley Blake challenge

The spring fabric challenge for the Modern Quilt Guild is wrapping up. Finishes are not due until the 30th of April, but since mine is done, I thought I'd share it with you. I loved the Riley Blake Rockstar fabrics because of the color way. Right up my alley! Truth be told, I had sworn off these challenges because I just wasn't that thrilled with the last couple of fabric bundles. Then I saw these fabrics and totally caved in!
I decided to do a collection of minis with my fabric. I did add in Riley Blake solids in Aqua and Red. The first mini I did is the bottom right mini, a Love All Around block by Lee Monroe (May Chappell) You can read about her block and get the free tutorial here. I had been wanting to try out this block and this seemed to be the perfect time. I really love this block and will surely be making more down the road!
The finished minis are all 14" square. Next up was a mini version of my own Funky Dresden
And then, because I have been having so much fun with dresdens, I did two more modern dresden interpretations. First a modern dresden quarter square triangle (inspired by Season 1, episode 4 episode of Fresh Quilting)
And then I used up every last scrap of fabric on this modern dresden sunrise...
So that's my submission for the challenge! I've had so much fun watching others pop up on Instagram (#mqgfabricchallenge). You really must check out all of the submissions! Some of them are truly amazing. I had a great time creating mine.





Tuesday, April 4, 2017

2017 Finish-along second quarter goals

I love participating in the Finish-along! It forces encourages me to finish up projects that might otherwise go undone! I have four for the second quarter this year....

First up, these placemats, which just need to be quilted and bound.....
Second, this completed top using some of my Liberty Lawn and low volume stash, also needs to be quilted and bound...
Speaking of Liberty, I've been English paper piecing some of the smaller bits into 1/2" hexies and this needs to be squared up and sewn into a cute bag....
Last but not least, the fabrics I hand dyed back in October are crying out to become a quilt! I have decided to make a hashtag quilt, featuring these fabrics. I need to get my hands on a background fabric and get to it!
So that's my plan! Are you participating in the Finish-along? I'm linking up here.