So... you all know how crazy my stash is... (this isn't even half of it!)
Yes, I am a fabric magnet, and I have no self control when it comes to bringing home orphans, especially novelty prints. I just can't help myself! Somebody needs to love the poor things, and make them into something useful! I've been making Project Linus quilts as fast as I can, but I am a slowwwww quilter, and I just can't keep up. It's been really weighing on me - should I stop looking? But I really enjoy it! Stop buying? Um, I can try, but not likely gonna happen! Donate it to Project Linus? Well, yeah, but that seems a little pointless (especially when they pretty much won't let you leave a meeting without taking a bag of fabric home with you!). What to do?
Well, have you seen the latest Craft Hope project? It's pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer ("giving sick kids a reason to smile... one pillowcase at a time"). I can't tell you how excited I was to see this project! I love to make pillowcases (see this post), and it's a perfect use for all those orphan novelty fabrics!
I started whipping some up, wondering just how many I could crank out in a month. I was making great progress, but I still have WAY more fabric than I can process. So I started wondering... how many could I make if I pulled in some friends? Maybe my sewing buddies would like to help out? And maybe there are some lurking local readers who would like to meet us and help too??
So, how about it? This Friday afternoon (1-5pm), my place, a pillowcase making party! You don't even have to bring anything, or have any sewing skills, or stay the whole time. You can even bring the kids (I'm talking to you, Robin!). Don't be shy - I'd love to meet some more local folks, and now's our chance!
Congrats to lucky #11 - that's Alexandra of Right-brain Release. She said she loves all colors, so I'll have fun putting together a multicolor set for her. And she's from Albuquerque - that's where my SIL lives! Thanks everyone for entering, and for all your nice comments about the pink quilt. It went off in the mail today (that card was such a hard one to write...).
I realized recently that I never shared pictures of my finished table quilt. You should have seen me standing on a chair, holding the camera over my head, trying to get a good action shot! This was the best I could manage...
The colors are so pretty!
It ended up being almost exactly the right size, even though I should have started with at least an extra 6 or 8" in both dimensions... Because I didn't have any extra width to trim, I ended up with a really wavy edge. Lesson learned!
I *love* the back! This print (also a sheet) is definitely one of my favorites. The large scale is not so great for piecing, but it makes an awesome back. I was so excited to find a couple more of these recently, and I can't wait to use them on future projects!
I wanted to say thank you once again to Mr. Monkeysuit (now blogging at Bread and Buttons) for the inspiration. Though to be honest, I have to admit that it's in storage for the moment. I didn't really think about how a table quilt would work with a pre-schooler who still likes to swirl yogurt around with her fingers, slurp her applesauce, etc. It pained me to see how quickly it got grungy. So, I'll just tuck it away for now and try it again in a few years. Meanwhile, maybe I should make a couple dozen matching placemats instead! :-)
"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."
Thanks, Amy!
I ended up having to redo the label, and I was so bummed!! For my first few quilts, I used the Sharpies I had on hand (green and black), and had no problems with the label fading in the wash. So, I ordered a whole set of Sharpies in pretty colors. I made the label as usual, and washed and dried the quilt like normal, and this is what came out. The lighter the ink color, the more it faded!
Oh well. Looking on the bright side - I didn't really like the shape of the label anyway, so it gave me a chance to redo it. I went back to my trusty old Sharpies, and tried again. This time I washed and dried the label by itself before I attached it to the quilt (once bitten, twice shy - I hate ripping out stitching!). It looks so much better, with no fading at all. From now on, I'll just use the pretty colored pens for decoration and not for the actual text!
I was thinking it would be fun to start a tradition of having a little giveaway with each major quilt I finish. I love doing giveaways, and maybe it will help motivate me to finish what I start more quickly. I can only hope!
So, how about a charm pack of 70 6" vintage linen squares? You can add a "solid" (like the gingham I used here) and make a quilt just like this one! If you're interested, just leave a comment about what color(s) you'd like. If you choose a single color (pink, blue, green or yellow), I'll pick two each of 35 different prints. If you choose more than one color, I'll pick 70 different prints. International shipping is fine, and I'll pick a winner on Thursday evening.
Someone else's UFO - if you're a thrifting junkie like me, you're bound to come across one. I don't know why, but I always feel compelled to DO something with them. Like I'm their last chance, and if I don't do it, nobody else will, and all that work will be wasted!! Sometimes, it only takes a couple finishing steps, like this one. Sometimes, it's starting almost from scratch, like this one. (Okay, that last one is STILL a UFO, but at least I got as far as two quilts, almost basted! and I have plans to have them quilted by the end of summer!). And there are so many more in my shelves, patiently waiting for me to fulfill their destiny...
In one of the stash sales I just posted about, there was this little pile of castoffs. I'm not sure it's an official UFO, maybe it was just some leftovers from a completed quilt. There were some loose half square triangles, some strips, some squares...
Some HSTs sewn into rows, some squares sewn in rows...
When I saw them, I immediately thought of Anna Maria Horner's Rainbow Around The Block project, which requested monochromatic blocks. You can't get much more monochromatic than this! So, I spent a day trimming and sewing and came up with 10 blocks to send.
There were 8 of these...
And one each of these other two random blocks.
I think they are pretty "granny" looking, and certainly not as lovely as the many others that have been donated. But I like to think that sampler charity quilts are better when they have a couple "homely" blocks thrown in! Kinda like a reminder that everyone can contribute in life, no matter what your skill level is. And I also like to think that this little UFO has finally fulfilled its destiny!
It's been a long time since I did a loot report! I've been trying to stick to a "sew more, loot less" plan, by which I limit myself to:
one weekly trip to my favorite Value Village (usually with Vada, as a mommy-daughter date).
Friday or Saturday morning garage saling, but only if I go with a friend. Sometimes I'll go with Vada, but only if it's a rummage sale, or a garage sale in our neighborhood.
Craigslist "stash sales", but again only if I go with a friend.
You wouldn't think there would be too many in that last category, but there have been at least 3 so far this summer. I took screenshots, so you can see what the temptation looks like, along with the loot I picked up.
I really tried to resist this one. I mailed the link to my friend Chara, because it was much closer to her house. But she somehow twisted my arm into going with her, and we somehow managed to fill up a 50-yard bin together. Of course, Chara only got a few yards (darn her!), and the rest was all mine. Here's a sampling - some Halloween prints...
a fun set of coordinating bowling fabric... (Do I bowl? No. Know someone who bowls? No. But it was cute! I'm sure I can turn it into a donation quilt or some pillowcases or something!)
And a bunch of pretty solids...
Then there was THIS sale. Again, I tried hard to resist. I really did! I mailed the link to Chara and my friend Quynh, hoping that one of them would buy it, so I wouldn't have to. Quynh took the bait, but then she brought the stash over to MY house to sort through. Very clever, that girl! Of course I somehow ended up with more than half!
Just look at those piles of fabric! There was a whole bag of scraps and strips and random leftovers too. So much fun to look through!
And one more... Quynh and I hit up this sale on Sunday. Funny enough, the seller was one of the gals from my Project Linus group!
For once, I was not the big spender! For $6, I brought home this stack...
I was so happy to find that cute kitty reproduction print. I have no plans for the piggies, but they were too adorable to pass up!
Ditto for this small vintage piece. Can you spot the nursery rhyme characters?
I also got a couple pretty mod vintage prints. These are lighter weight (probably poly blends of some sort), which I thought might make some nice skirts.
And for another 50 cents each, I picked up these...
I should have put something in the picture for scale - these are 6000 yard spools! They are A&E Perma Core thread, normally about $10 each. Nice deal!
If you're interested in checking out Craigslist for stash sales in your area, Ircabbit has a great post about 'how to pwn at Craigslist' (love that title!).
And if you're in the Redmond, WA area and want to sell your stash, whatever you do, please don't tell me about it!
I've been slacking on my blog, I know. Do you ever feel that you just have a limited number of things you can juggle at once, and in order to concentrate on something new, you just have to drop something else for a while until you get everything under control again? Well, I do! My new distraction isn't even anything of consequence, it's just... distracting. But, I will slowly catch back up!
First of all, a big THANK YOU to my bee partners for the blocks I've received in the last month or so. They are beautiful!
And while I have been slacking on the blog, I have not been slacking on the crafting! I'm happy to report that I have finished my second "Cancer sucks" quilt, which will soon be heading to my friend Kelli in Texas. Sending a quilt to someone in Texas, in August, sounds like the stupidest idea ever, huh?
Like the first one, this is all vintage sheets - two each of 35 pink prints, and the "solid" is a pink and white Pottery Barn gingham. The back is also a thrifted sheet, but it's a newer Ralph Lauren 100% cotton (and buttery soft too). The quilting is just a simple cross-hatch through the squares. The binding is not scrappy on this one, only because I'd recently picked up a nice pink print, and it was sitting too close to the cutting table when it came time to do the binding...
I tried a new place to hang a quilt to take some quick photos... Next time I'll haul out a stool to stand on. Vada will not be happy with me if I break her trampoline by greatly exceeding the weight limit!
I still have to add a label, and I'm on the hunt for a good inscription. My friend Kelli is deeply religious, but I'm not so much. Can anyone suggest a nice bible verse for me?
Yesterday's Project Linus meeting was a sewing session, instead of the usual fabric sorting, label attaching, and kit making that we do. I took advantage of the large table space to try out an idea for a super quick project, combining my favorite Quick Strippie design with the baste as you go technique I learned from Des when I first started quilting. Des, I can't thank you enough for that post - I've never seen the technique mentioned anywhere else, and it's just so fantastic!!
Before the meeting, I prepped the fabric for two quilts. For this design, it's five 6.5" strips of focal fabric, six 3" strips of contrast, and ten 1.5" strips of accent. I also cut five 2.5" strips (of contrast or accent fabric, whichever I had enough of) for the binding. The backs were already made (using my weird backing technique, as explained in a previous post). After only four hours at the meeting, I had two completely pieced and basted quilts! Here's how it works:
First sew the accent strips to the contrast strips, aligning the ends on one side. The bottom and top pieces have the accent on only one side, as you see on the left. Press the seams however you like - I pressed mine towards the contrast because it was easier darker.
Lay out the backing, wrong side up, and smooth it out.
Lay the batting out over the backing, centered and smoothed down.
By the way, I do not AT ALL recommend using crappy fluffy poly batting, but I'm still working on the monster in my closet, so that's what I'm using. If you use nice batting, this technique will be SO much easier! I was especially cursing myself at this meeting, because they had a whole huge bolt of Warm and White sitting there (donated by the Warm company - thanks folks!), free for the taking. But no, I bought this crappy batting, and I'm determined to finish the bolt!
Anyway... After laying down the batting, place the first (top) strip across the top (short) side of the backing/batting. It should be right side up, centered (equal amounts of batting on each side), and as straight as possible.
Then, lay down the next strip, with the bottom edges even. The top strip will be upside down, so the right sides of the two strips are together. Pin the bottom edges, through all layers (the 2 strips, the batting and the backing). Put your pins pretty close together, about 3 or 4 inches apart.
For sewing down the strips, I used a walking foot. I'm not sure it's absolutely necessary, but I think it helps when you have this many layers (and that fluffy batting!). Because I wasn't using my 1/4" quilting foot, I got a wider seam (more like 3/8"). Keep that in mind during your planning - if exact dimensions are important, you'll want to add an extra 1/4" to each row. And you would not want to use this technique for designs which have corner points that would get cut off.
So, drag the whole thing over to your machine, and sew down the seam. It will feel backwards, since the raw edges of the seam will be on the left instead of the right. It helps to pull the fabric from the front and back as you sew, to keep everything taut and straight. When you're done, lay the quilt out again, and fold that second row down and press the seam. Smooth down the batting and backing, making sure they are still laying down straight and smooth.
Add the third row, sew it down, flip and press. Alternate the strips and repeat all the way down the quilt. If you're using directional prints (like I am with the kitty print here), be sure you check the direction before you sew each row!
As you work your way down, you can roll up the quilt on the right to fit under the arm of your sewing machine. When you get towards the middle/bottom of the quilt, you can turn the quilt around and sew from the other direction so you have less bulk under the arm.
After 10 seams, you have a finished top AND a basted quilt. Huzzah! I didn't take a picture of the kitty quilt I was working on above, but here's a picture of the second one I made - a cute froggy print.
Yay, two quilts ready to be quilted! I'll probably do some simple meandering across the focal print rows, and some simple wavy quilting across the accent/contrast rows. For now, these are going to the bottom of the "to be quilted" pile. And now I really need to get back to working on that pile!
