Diets are for Suckers!

So, I broke my fabric diet today. I knew it was going to happen and I don't regret it for an instant. How could I be expected to spend an afternoon at The Workroom and leave empty handed? Impossible!

These lovelies are destined to become a pencil case for my husband. I made him one last year but the zipper opening is too small. He loves to bike around the city so obviously this fabric spoke to me. The line is called Velocity and is by Jessica Hogarth.

I've been coveting Tula Pink's newest line, The Birds & The Bees. These two ladybug fat quarters are all I got. I think I showed great restraint, don't you? The print on the left is by Alexander Henry and was on sale. I love it's retro kitschy vibe.

Karyn got in the entire line of Chicopee by Denyse Schmidt.  Again, I reined myself in and selected only four fat quarters to come home with me. Chartreuse has been my favorite colour for the last year or so, making it easy to choose a colourway. I love the print on the far right. Actually, I love them all! I'll probably end up buying more prints from this line eventually.

Finally, check out this ribbon! Isn't it darling? I picked up a metre and am conjuring up ideas to put it to good use.

Stop by tomorrow to see my progress on my Sew Intertwined Quilt! I finished my 20 outer blocks!

Standardized Tests, Quilt Planning, and Lone Blocks

You might be thinking, what does standardized testing have to do with quilting? Tonight, as I carefully referenced my Sew Intertwined template, I was reminded of the test category that always gave me trouble: visual and/or spacial reasoning. These are the questions that give you a 3D object to visually manipulate. Or there's a picture of a puzzle missing a piece and a bunch of pieces and you have to figure out which one fits. Go do a google image search for "spatial reasoning" if you don't know what I'm talking about. I'll wait.

I worked on my outer blocks for the Sew Intertwined QAL this evening. My four square patches and HSTs are done and it was time to match them up. In order to do this, I needed to really concentrate. I had to take my four patch and lie it in it's exact position (dark green-top left, dark pink-bottom right) and then do the same for the HST and then double check and only then could I pin. I crossed off each block as I went. My template is starting to get very marked up.

I had a few minutes of panic when I was left with a lone four patch. How could it be? What did I miss? All my blocks were crossed off! Thankfully, after Kivi counted my pinned blocks (twice!), I concluded that I had somehow made an extra one. Phew!

Tomorrow is Quilt Sunday at the Workroom and I'm hoping I can finish my 40 outer blocks. Some of the women in the QAL are already done the entire quilt top! I have no idea how they did it so quickly. It took me several nights just to sew my four patches, trim my HSTs and prepare these blocks for the new phase of sewing!

WIP Wednesday: The Planning the Work and Working the Plan Edition

The fact that it's already Wednesday again has me concerned. Time is flying by and I'm just...missing it somehow. Overnight, Levi went from "why would I want to walk when I can just bum shuffle?" to "I'm waaaaaalking and, oh yeah, I can walk now, see?" Also, wasn't yesterday Sunday?

All of this is to say, I don't have much of a post today. I'm chugging along on my Sew Intertwined Quilt.  I took some time to colour my pattern so that I'd know how much of what I needed to cut. My pencil crayons don't really match the fabric. Oh! And I realized after much frustration that the dresden in the pattern has 24 blades instead of 20. I need to remember to tell the designers.

The tutorial for blocks I'm currently working on have us making HSTs (ugh!) using a "new to me" technique. You sew around the edges of your two fabrics and then cut them on the diagonal into four quarters.

It's definitely a short cut, but you still need to trim the HSTs. Have I mentioned before how much I hate trimming HSTs? I know I have because I hate it THAT much.

In other news, my fabric diet is going very well. I haven't bought anything this month! Small problem though: Little Kukla has hit the stores. I have been eagerly awaiting this line's arrival because it is ADORABLE! Plus, MATRIOSHKA DOLLS!

Balabusta? Matrioshka? Know what I'm saying? I've decided that I NEED to use this fabric for my name tag for Sewing Summit so I must order it. I'm trying to force myself to wait until September first. However, my resistant is waning. Also? Denise Schmydt's Chicopee just arrived at The Workroom. The entire line. So there's that. I clearly picked the wrong month to diet!

EDITED AT 8:36 P.M.: OMG! My Matrioshka doll print is already sold out at Hawthorne Threads! There were 65 yards yesterday! I am totally distraught. Should I just order it from Fat Quarter Shop immediately and forget the diet? What to do, what to do?!

Here are my weekly stats:

In Progress

Mug Rug Swap - DONE, but not in the mail yet

Curious Nature quilt - no progress

Sew Intertwined quilt - Dresden is done, next set of blocks are in progress

Liberty Wiksten tank - on a break

La Dee Da skirt - no progress

Flora Charm Quilt - no progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - no progress

Hibernating projects

Levi's Growth Chart - no progress

NY Beauty QAL - no progress

We Bee Learning Bee/Levi's Bed Quilt - I received my final block. Now I need to make a bunch more.
 

In the Queue

Sewing Summit Quilted Name Tag

Kona Sea Bundle quilt 

 

Please take some time to check out everyone else's WIP's on  Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network.

Mommy Brainwave!

Warning: this post is not quilty or crafty or sewing related. I'll be back to my usual textile talk tomorrow.

One of my daily challenges is keeping Levi entertained while I get dinner ready. Most days, he's attached to my leg and whining to be picked up. When Kivi is home, he's able to entertain him but Kivi was working late tonight. My friend Sara blogs about being a Montessori mom and I remembered seeing photos of her son moving puff balls with tongs between containers and thought, I can put together a game like that for Levi!

Supplies: Dry chickpeas, a spoon, a cupcake tin, and mac & cheese boxes (cut in half so he can reach inside more easily). I demonstrated how to use a spoon to move the chickpeas from one cupcake hole to another. Levi thought the spoon was a waste of time. Using his hands was more efficient. Also, the boxes were way more fun to fill than the cupcake tin.

You guys, this activity kept him busy for over half an hour! He even pulled out additional containers from "his" tupperware drawer to try filling with chickpeas. He would have continued right on playing if I hadn't stopped him to eat dinner. Score one for Mama!

WIP Wednesday: The Dresden Edition

I can't believe it's already Wednesday! How is that even possible?! Before you know it, Labour Day weekend will have come and gone and the Jewish holidays will be here. For some folks, fall means back to school. For me, it means a month of holidays: festival meals, seeing friends at shul, reflecting on the year that's passed and the one to come. I'm hosting a Rosh Hashannah lunch for the second year for about 20 friends (adults and kids), because I don't already have enough on my plate! I kid! It was a really lovely time last year and I think we'll make it an annual tradition.

So. Wednesday again. I've already shared my finished Mug Rug with you, but here it is again, since it is so freaking adorable.

I also made my August blocks for the We Bee Learning Bee. Rita asked for four 6.5 inch postage stamp blocks. We were told to use any colours we liked, but to alternate light and dark tones. These are great stash busters. In fact, my blocks were entirely made from the fabric in my stash bags!

My biggest accomplishment of the week is that I am finally making progress on  my Sew Intertwined quilt. I finished the first tutorial, the dresden plate. I've made a number of quarter dresdens before (seven to be exact), but this was a a bit more complicated. First, I needed to paper piece the corners of each block so that they would "intertwine" with future blocks. That wasn't difficult and I do love paper piecing. Making the dresden blades was also simple and stitching them down went swimmingly. It was putting the four blocks together that caused problems. Even though I'd been very careful about my placement of the blades, when I went to piece the quarters together, things just didn't fit together. My blades were not properly aligned! I ended up fudging it so that the blades matched up nicely, but it meant that the seams in the centre were misaligned. Luckily they are completely covered with the centre circle so it isn't very noticeable (except of course to me).

I didn't follow the instructions for making the centre circle from the tutorial. They suggested using interfacing or two layers of fabric, stitching a seam around the perimeter and turning it inside out. This probably would have led to a smoother circle. Instead I used iron on freezer paper, cut notches and folder over a 1/4 inch seam.

 

The colours in the photograph are a bit little off because these are taken indoors. I'll try and take photos outdoors next time, but it is difficult to do during the week, what with working and all.

Here are my stats for this week:

In Progress

Mug Rug Swap - DONE

Curious Nature quilt - no progress

Sew Intertwined quilt - Dresden is done

Liberty Wiksten tank - on a break

La Dee Da skirt - no progress

Flora Charm Quilt - no progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - no progress
We Bee Learning Bee/Levi's Bed Quilt - I received my final block. Now I need to make a bunch more.

Hibernating projects

Levi's Growth Chart - no progress

NY Beauty QAL - no progress
 

In the Queue

Kona Sea Bundle quilt 

August We Bee Learning bee block for Rita - it's a postage stamp block and should be good fun. 

 

Please take some time to check out everyone else's WIP's on  Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network.

 

 

French Press Perfection

Success! My mug rug is finished and it's pretty fabulous, if I do say so myself.  I used a ton of different techniques to create this little quilt. I tried my hand at embroidery for the first time.

 

I used one strand of yellow and a strand of orange thread and fashioned the handle using a satin stitch. I used a warm brown thread and a split stitch for the steam. Looks pretty good, right?

 

I used applique for the coffee mug. Corners continue to be difficult for me. I'll keep practicing. 

My bindings, on the other hand, are definitely improving. I love sewing the back of the binding by hand. And finishing the binding on a mug rug takes less than an hour! Yippee!

I hope my partner likes it. I know she loves coffee, so at the very least she'll like the theme of the mug rug. 

You can purchase this pattern, and lots of other great paper piecing patterns, at Right Patterns on Etsy.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday today. See my sidebar for the link.

WIP Wednesday: Secret Swap Stress

I mentioned last week that I'd signed up for a Mug Rug swap on Flickr. You're assigned a secret partner to make a mini quilt for (no larger than 8 by 10, just large enough for a cup of coffee). Everyone posts an inspiration mosaic to the Flickr group. You are supposed to check out your partner's favorites and Flickr profile for clues to her likes and dislikes and try and make her a mug rug she will love. You can post progress photos for people to comment on to see if you are on the right track. I put up a picture of the fabrics I planned to use and got a fair number of responses.

My inspiration mosaic - visit the Flickr page for details on each item.

The thing is, I'm finding the whole experience a tad stressful. I really want my partner to like what I make her. But what if she doesn't?! What if I have it completely wrong? I read somewhere that she loves coffee and it also looks like she's a fan of paper piecing so I bought a pattern from RightPatterns, picked fabrics I thought she'd like and got to work. Here's what I have done so far.

I'm planning to add a rectangular block to the left of the bodum and applique a little coffee mug made from the Flea Market Fancy print and maybe hand stitch some steam coming from the mug. What do you think? Would you like to receive something like it in a swap?
 

I've finally gotten going on my Sew Intertwined QAL quilt. This jumble of fabric is actually the beginning of my dresden plate block. I'm several weeks behind on this and the whole point (for me) of participating in a quilt-a-long is to complete a quilt top in a reasonable amount of time so I need to get going and quick! 

Finally, for those of you who missed Monday's post, I finished my Tied Picnic Blanket quilt in record time! Choosing to tie the quilt instead of quilt it made all the difference. I created a very "mini" tutorial by outlining my process so please pop on back to the post to see more pictures and read all about this quilt. We've already used the blanket and it's serving is purpose wonderfully.

Here are my stats for this week:

In Progress

Mug Rug Swap - well underway

Picnic blanket - DONE!

Curious Nature quilt - still cutting templates

Sew Intertwined quilt - working on my Dresden plates

Liberty Wiksten tank - on a break

La Dee Da skirt - no progress

Flora Charm Quilt - no progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - no progress
We Bee Learning Bee/Levi's Bed Quilt - June is my month and I've received 9 out of 10 blocks received so far

Hibernating projects

Levi's Growth Chart - no progress

NY Beauty QAL - no progress
 

In the Queue

Kona Sea Bundle quilt 

August We Bee Learning bee block for Rita - it's a postage stamp block and should be good fun. 

 

Please take some time to check out everyone else's WIP's on  Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network. And now, back to my dresdens!

 

Tied Picnic Blanket: A Mini Tutorial

We spend many of our summer weekends having picnics in the parks with friends. We've been using a canvas table cloth as our picnic blanket, but it wasn't quite the right size. Enter my ten inch charms collected from the masculine swap I participated in! The dark colour scheme made it perfect for something that was bound to be spilled on regularly. My goal was to get this quilt done quickly, so that we could use it right away.

The construction was simple. I laid out 56 squares in a seven by eight grid. First I sewed them into pairs, then quarters, then groups of eight and so on. For the back, I used two large pieces of canvas I had in my stash. I also cut up two pairs of jeans and pieced them together into larger blocks. I decided to leave some of the seams in for visual interest. I also used a few other scraps of canvas I had left over from a tote bag I made last summer.

To put the quilt together, I laid the front and back right sides together and inserted two thick canvas ties. The long ends of the straps should be hidden inside at this point (i.e. when the right sides are together, only see the short ends of the straps are visible beyond the edge so that when you turn the blanket inside out, the long straps are on the outside - make sense?).

Next I sewed around the perimeter, leaving a two foot opening. Then I turned the blanket right side out, sewed up the opening and top stitched about 5/8" away from the seams. I made rounded corners which I think turned out perfectly.

I decided to tie this blanket, instead of quilting it. I think it was a good decision because of how quickly I was able to finish it up. I used a variegated yarn from that was leftover from a hat I made (and lost) last winter. Levi thinks the ties are great fun!

 

This blanket was sewn up in less than a week! Am I fast, or what?! Using charms from the swap was a huge time saver, because I only needed to cut twelve squares (I wanted the quilt to be a bit bigger than the 42 charms would have allowed for). I imagine our family and friends enjoying meals on this quilt for years to come!

If I can remember, I'll link up with Fabric Tuesday and Finish it Up Friday this week.

WIP Wednesday: The Diet Edition

I don't generally go for diets. I'm just not interested in restricting myself. But sometimes, something has to give, and that time is now.  You see, yesterday I worked on our finances. We use Mint to track expenses and I'm in charge of keeping things up to date. I was categorizing our July receipts and when I saw the total for the "Lisa: Hobbies" budget line, I knew drastic measures were in order. You are my witnesses; I am on a fabric diet for the month of August. No fabric purchases! It won't be easy, but it simply must be done.

Now, don't laugh, but there was fabric waiting in my mail slot today. I bought it in JULY so it's totally legal. I picked up 4 fat quarters from the Heaven and Helsinki line by Patty Young which I simply adore. The colours are very me. Come on now, could this stuff be any cuter?!

I really struggled in choosing the two teal colours for my Sew Intertwined Quilt so I ended up ordering three. Originally I'd planned to use the darkest and medium, but I questioned if there was enough contrast. What do you think? Which two of the three would you use?

Quick shout out to Mad About Patchwork for the crazy fast shipping. Pam, you are the best! I love having a Canadian source for Kona.

My newest WIP is a Picnic blanket using my 10 inch charm squares from the manly swap I recently participated in on Flickr. I figured they would make a perfect picnic quilt because they are dark so the spills won't show too much. I've asked friends to pass along old jeans which I'll use for the backing. I'm not planning to add batting. Here's a sneak peak:

I've joined my very first "finished object" swap. We're swapping mug rugs and the fun part is, you don't know who you'll be receiving from, just who you are making your mug rug for. You're supposed to post "in progress" photos in the Flickr group for others to comment on (hopefully your partner!). I'm excited to learn who I'll be sewing for. I should find out this week.

Oh! I can't forget my biggest, bestest news of the week! I finished the Happy Melon Quilt! Be sure to check it out, because it is FABULOUS!

Whew! This post is getting far too long, so let's jump to the status report, shall we?

Here's where my WIPs are at:

NEW

Mug Rug Swap - waiting for my partner to be assigned

Picnic blanket - well underway

In Progress
Sew Intertwined quilt - fabric has been purchased

Liberty Wiksten tank - on a break

La Dee Da skirt - no progress

Flora Charm Quilt - no progress
Farmer's Wife QAL - no progress
We Bee Learning Bee/Levi's Bed Quilt - June is my month and I've received 9 out of 10 blocks received so far

Sew. Happy. Quilt - DONE!

 

Hibernating projects

Levi's Growth Chart - no progress

NY Beauty QAL - no progress

In the Queue

Curious Nature quilt

Kona Sea Bundle quilt

So, that's what I've been up to. What have you done this week?  I'm linking up with WIP Wednesdays at Freshly Pieced and the Canadian Needle and Thread Network.