finger thumb

and the winner is...

So I've got a new set of charm packs in the shop. I'm super excited about this one. I think it really is my favourite.  I call this set Pottery Blues because the patterns and the colours remind me so much of the Delft Blauw (did I spell that right?) china and pottery that is so much a part of my Dutch heritage. I LOVE blue and white. There are so many different traditions of blue and white pottery.

From Ming Dynasty China to India to the Willoware of England. And of course, the Delft blue of my childhood. 

Aren't they gorgeous! I made four sets of these and I am totally stealing one of them for myself. I don't know what I'll make, but I know it will be pretty!

And now to the fun part. Wanna know which one of you won a set of these? Drum roll please:

The winner is: Rachel Hofing!

Congratulations Rachel. Leave a comment letting me know which of the colour sets you want and I will contact you regarding how to get it to you.

making the cut

I have this problem. You know how I love vintage fabric. Especially vintage bedsheets. I'm always on the lookout for a good, bright, graphic-impact vintage bedsheet. I love high contrast, I love clean geometrics. And I have just a bit of a stash. Just a usual quilter I-have-a-fabric-problem stash. 

Anyhow, I have some favourites. And this is one of them.  Isn't that lovely? And its a nice big piece too, like a queen sized top sheet. No annoying elastic edges like on a fitted, and no holes or wear patches. Just a gorgeous huge expanse of fabric. 

So let me tell you what my problem is. I just can't cut into it! I've had this sheet for at least a year I'm sure. And its one of my favourites. So I've officially been hoarding it. And I've finally got a project that I want to use it for and I still am having such a hard time cutting it. Its been sitting waiting to be used for over a month. I've done all the other cutting and sewing that I can do before I have to cut into this. And now I've got everything else done and It's been two days and I can't do anything until I CUT. THIS. FABRIC. Hubs has been teasing me about it and told me that if I didn't cut it today he'd cut it right down the middle himself and then take it out to the garage and use it for a rag. Which is a total lie of course, but still, he makes a good point. I'm not sure why I get stuck like this either. Its not like I'm ever going to use it as a bedsheet. Maybe that's what's in the back of my head, like this is an awesome bedsheet and, you know, if the zombie apocalypse ever hits I might need some extra sheets. And once I cut it it will stop being a bedsheet. Though on the bright side it can start being a lot of other things. 

It took me all day, right until fifteen minutes before the Little Dude was going to get off the bus (and then my quilting time is over) to finally slice into it.  Whew. And now its been started. 

And here it is in use. This is just one component of a bigger item, but it gives you an idea of what I'm doing. These letters have been paper pieced, from patterns that I drafted myself, and that "Q" was a real pain in the butt. But now it is done and I can move on with the project. Which is a good thing too, because I have a deadline and so many other things I'd like to get to! 

So it is just me or do any of you other quilters/sewists have this "I can't cut my precious fabric" problem too? 

A purse for L.D.

So as I said yesterday, the Little Dude was disappointed that all the purses I'd made were going to his cousins, and none to stay here at our house for him. So today, with his assistance, I made him a purse. A satchel. A man-bag. Call it what you will, we just call it handy. Oh, and by assistance, I mean he picked out the fabrics and motifs. So basically he was the designer this and I was just his humble crafts-person. I worked on it all morning, by telling him that if he wanted me to make this, he'd have to play nicely with his brother with no fighting and no crying, because if he wanted me to finish it today I could not be getting up every five minutes to  mediate a toy dispute. And I'm happy to say L.D. saw the reason of this and had a very pleasant morning with his brother with almost no fights (or at least none started by him) and I was able to finish his bag.

And here is the happy recipient now: He's not usually keen to stand and smile for a picture, but he was very co-operative in this instance. 

For behold the glory of his fabric choices. On this side, a Teeneage Mutant Ninja Turtle. (from 1980's bed sheets of course)

And on the other side, Skeletor! Again from 1980's bedsheets, this time staring He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. He's quite taken with Skeletor. And funnily enough has no interest in He-Man at all. In fact, he even helped me frame the way I would cut the fabric, saying "From here to here Mom, with JUST Skeletor in it, and his sword. But not He-Man. I don't want any part of He-Man to show at all."

He even chose the lining, (he loves these rainbow stripes, as do I) and the strap colour. He wanted orange, so I had him choose between three different shades of orange, and he declared this one the best, as he felt it looked good with the green that he'd chosen for the TMNT background. Also, he requested a very loooong strap like this, though we have since knotted it a little higher, for practical reasons. 

And the final touch, and possibly his favourite part, the mushroom applique. We spent some time this afternoon drawning and colouring and cutting out paper mushrooms to decorate the Christmas tree with. Because you know, they are so festive. 

It is such fun to sew something for my little boy. And so sweet to be hugged and thanked for it repeatedly today. We even crammed in a quick trip to the library to use his new "book bag" and also so he could show it off to the librarians. Ach, it fills a crafty mother's heart with joy to hear him tell people "I picked out all the fabrics and my mom made this for me herself!". A good parenting moment to sock away and remember for when the bad parenting moments threaten to overwhelm me.

finished quilt: riley blake challenge

I've blogged about it before, so I won't go into it in too much detail here, but here is my finished quilt! Made with the fabrics from the Riley Blake Fabric Challenge.  

And here is the back. Its a pieced back, which I don't usually do. I basically made two quilts in one. It's because it was a fabric challenge, and you had to use certain frabrics, and I did not have a big enough piece left over, so I just did a very loose strip pieced back. Which was so fun really. I love the unstructured-ness and no planning. You just sort of go with it and do whatever. 
A little close-up. I'm very happy with the pattern. But really, the very best thing about this quilt....
Is that it makes a great back-drop. 
 There was really no way to keep them off this quilt.

And I promise you I did not dress them to co-ordinate with the quilt. That just happens. 

This one loves to smile for a picture. 

And this guy got very pose-y for someone who lately does not like to stand still long enough for the shutter to click.

Thought of course, this is his idea of a "picture face".

I put him to work eventually with all his energy.
He was my quilt holder upper.

Which he seemed to enjoy.

But quilt or no quilt, this was the best shot of the day. Seriously. I don't need to say another word.

vacation destination

So apparently we are going on vacation. I had no idea, but its all been planned and laid out for me, and since planning the half the work, who am I to say no? Here's where we are going. Do you recognize it? Our next/first ever family vacation destination as illustrated by the Little Dude? I didn't at first either. But noting the tropical fish, I was optimistic and said "Oh, is it the Caribbean?" But alas, I was wrong.

"No Mom, its all underwater! See, there are two sharks, a big one and a little one, and three kinds of Jelly fish and some seaweed because its very far underwater. Its the Marianas Trench! I want to go there, because we can go down really far and see whales and giant squids fighting and oar fish and hatchet fish and blob fish. We can all go. In a submarine!" When I demurred that perhaps it might be a bit out of our budget and not as much, um, fun as one would hope he said "See the jelly fish? That one is a quilt jelly fish!"

Oh, well then, if there is a quilt jelly fish, I'm totally in. 

(I doubt very much that a quilt jelly fish exists, but I love it all the more since it appears to have been invented by my five year old in the hopes of persuading me to accompany him on his trip to the bottom of the ocean. Also, that is a reasonably accurate rendering of a traditional Housetop quilt. Looks like someone's been perusing my quilt books...)

quilt progress

So I've finished my quilt top for the Riley Blake Fabric Challenge from The Modern Quilt Guild. But now, I need a quilt back. And since its a fabric challenge you're supposed to use the fabric they give you, right? So I didn't want to buy any more of that fabric (since I'm cheap) and you are allowed to use solids, so I thought I'd do a quick colour blocked quilt back made of chunks of the last two patterned fabrics I had left, and then some solids to fill it out. But then I got carried away, and started cutting strips instead of chunks and before I knew it, I'd basically pieced another quilt top. Though of course, this one will go on the back. Sorry for the gross photo with all the studio mess and the flash (ugh, I hate flash) but you know how it goes, not much natural light at 10:30 in the evening. Anyhow, its basically two strip pieced halves sewn together to make a whole. It was all improvisational piecing, with no measuring and no pinning. Which is really so much fun. I've done it a bit before, but I really enjoyed making this biggish piece with very little plan, just making decisions on the fly. 

Here's how it will look when I cut it to fit the back.  I just need to add one more strip to the top or bottom because of course I made it just slightly too small. But no matter. I'll get that done soon and then be on my way to getting it all quilted together. Wheee!

finished quilt top

ok, just a quick post tonight. Finished piecing the blocks of my new quit for the Riley Blake fabric challenge from the Modern Quilt Guild. Here it is with the blocks all done and lined up ready to be sewn together. 

And here it is with them all sewn together, quilt top completed:

Hard to tell the difference in these photos. But wait a second..... 

Here's a side by side image, with the one on the left being only completed blocks the one on the right being blocks sewn all together into a complete quilt top. Aside from the fact that it got smaller obviously (because of the seam allowances, right) something is different about them. The top rows are no longer the same. I don't know how I did that? But no matter, it still looks nice and I have absolutely no plans to take the stitch ripper to it. Now I've just got to get to quilting.... And pick a back for it. Decisions, decisions. 

fabric challenge quilt

So, I'm working on a new quilt. I'm a member of the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, and all the Modern Quilt Guilds were invited to participate in a fabric challenge courtesy of Riley Blake Designs. This is my first time doing one of these things, but I love the concept. We are all given a little stack of free fabrics (is there anything I like better than free fabric? Probably not.) and invited to make a project with them. There are very few restrictions (you can make anything you want, it just has to be quilted. You need to use some of the free fabrics, but you don't have to use them all. You can add in any solids you like, etc) so it feels like a really nice, open opportunity. And I've had a few ideas jangling around in my brain, waiting for the perfect opportunity to be used. So I did a bit of mapping out, and a bit of cutting and here is a preliminary layout.  I like the shapes and the movement in this. But we actually got rather small amounts of fabric (one eighth of a meter), not that I'm complaining, but it does limit the size of your final project. So I decided to add a few more solids in there, in different shades of the yellow/blue/orange fabrics, just to see if I could expand it all somewhat. I also re-oriented it a bit, and it worked out pretty nicely. I took these pictures a little while ago and I've since changed it up a bit more (different shades of solids, even larger total number of pieces) and made it even bigger and I'm really happy with how its going. I spent a lovely evening sewing away at it while listening to Craft Sanity Podcasts, and maybe tomorrow when I have more light I'll take some pictures and show you where its at currently. 

All right, now I'm off to bake a quick batch of cookies (for L.D.'s school lunch tomorrow) and go to bed. Even though I want to stay up and keep sewing. Sigh. Ah well, tomorrow is another day!

arrow quilt top

Not many words today, and just a couple of pictures. I know, how unlike me. But I just wanted to show you that I got the quilt top done that I had all laid out a little while ago.  See?

l'm very happy with the borders I added to it. I'm not usually a fan of borders, but I really like the stripe-y element that these add. 

And I love the striped patches. I think its a device I'm going to use more often.

And now, its got to be quilted. Ugh. Not my favourite part of the process, but it must be done. Not looking forward to the sore shoulders, but I do look forward to the finished product. So soldier on I must. 

wedding quilt

So if you are a regular reader here, you know my policy on giving hand made items as gifts. I won't go on about it again (for long), but basically the upshot is making stuff is a ton of work, often costs a lot of money too (surprise, surprise), so MAKE SURE the intended recipient wants it, because if they don't you have no one but yourself to blame for your own hurt feelings when your 18 year old nephew is less than enthusiastic about the afghan you crocheted for him. Even if it was in his favourite colour, even if the yarn was really, really expensive, even if you raised that sheep from a lamb, sheared it yourself, and dyed the resulting handspun yarn with your own blood sweat and tears, if he doesn't want a crocheted afghan, he won't be happy about recieveing it and everybody (including you) will be bummed. Money and time wasted. My advice is to ask someone if they would like a hand made gift, and then, only if you get an enthusiastic "yes" from them, solicit their opinion about colour/style/materials and then proceede with the fun of making. 

Anyhow, my point is, I'm making a friend of mine a quilt as a wedding present. She's a lovely, crafty creative sort herself (you can find her beautiful printed and embroidered clothing here) and she seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of a hand made quilt. I asked her if she had colour/fabric/pattern preferences and she immediately mailed me an amazing package of lovely fabrics that she'd found/saved along the way, along with a detailed, handwritten note about the enclosed fabric. I cannot tell you how happy that made me. Even when you have someone who says "yes, I'd love it if you made me a quilt!" it can be rough going when they say, "oh, I dunno, I really like purple. Just make it pretty and I'm sure I'll like it." Yikes. That's when you are all like "yo, there are a LOT of different purples out there. Have you ever been to a fabric store? 'I like purple' does not narrow it down much."

Sylwia (the bride to be) sent me this fantastic package, and included her favourite material of all time, of which she only had a small scrap left. Here is how she described it: So obviously, I'm gonna use that fabric. But I needed more of it. So I did a little shopping and found something that, while not an exact match, was similar is spirit and colour. 

That's her scrap on the right, and my purchase on the left. 

Then I bought a bunch more fabrics to go with it. And I have all of her lovely little remnants and treasures that she mailed me, so I found a pattern (from this book, good ole' Kaffe), conferred with her on it, got the go ahead, and started cutting and laying it out. And lookit what we came up with.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with this. Very pleasing pattern and lots of fun fabrics. She had these lovely little pre-strip-pieced swatches of vintagey looking fabric, but they'd been sewn with a serger, and I have no idea where she got them, but I cut them on the bias to make those cute little stripe-y pieces, which I think make the quilt even more dynamic.

Also another thing I am stoked about: finally putting up my own design wall. Which was really as easy as pinning an old flannel sheet to the wall with thumb tacks. If you are unfamiliar with this concept the flannel sheet acts like a giant felt-board, and the magic of static electricity keeps your cut-out pieces stuck to the flannel, neat as can be. I don't know why I didn't do this before. Its genius. They even sell felt with a grid printed on it so you can be all level and accurate about the whole process. Actually, I do know why I didn't do this before, because my studio was too damned messy. But recent guests in my guest room (as the studio is also known) have forced me to clean it up (thanks to my lovely Mother in Law, and also my bestie Sara, who both stayed in that room in the last half-year) as you cannot have guests sleeping atop random piles of fabric and ephemera. Anyhow, since I actually had access to a bare wall, I pinned up that sheet and voila, best quilting aid ever!

So I need to finish this soon, as her wedding draws near. I'll be posting about the progress here so you can see how it is going. 

Oh, and you might be surprised that there is not long-winded, sentimental post about the first day of school being tomorrow, because the Little Dude does not actually start school until Wednesday this week. But don't worry, I'll be all maudlin and wordy in Thursday morning for sure.....