A Rainbow of Flying Geese

i've been so impatient to post this!


frankly, i'm surprised that i waited a week, but i'll explain that with the fact that the previous week disappeared - what? it's monday again? wtf?


i mentioned in last weekend's felicities post that i'd done a swap with Holly, and i LOVE what i made her - if i hadn't known that she'd love it as much as i do, i probably wouldn't have been able to give it up!


one of the things on my xmas list this year was a fq bundle of Lizzy House's fabric line Pearl Bracelets. Pearl Bracelets is a print that she's included in previous fabric lines, and they've been incredibly popular, so Andover released a line of 26 colours of the print.



don't they look yummy, all neatly folded up along with Lizzy House's other new line, Constellations? (i used a previous line, Outfoxed, for my Improv is Foxy quilt. i'm kind of a fan)


anyone who knows Holly knows that she loves rainbows, and i happen to know that she's a fan of Pearl Bracelets as well, so OF COURSE i had to use part of my Pearl Bracelet bundle to make her a rainbow!




for the patchwork, i decided to use a paperpiecing pattern that lends itself well to rainbows, A Circle of Geese by Piece By Number. (Christina, The Sometimes Crafter, has a great tutorial for this block, if you're interested) the VMQG actually used this as a challenge block way back in April 2011, but i never got around to making it then.




Holly particularly likes the combination of rainbows and natural linen, so choosing my main fabric was a no-brainer. i made the tote in one piece and quilted it with straight lines echoing around the geese (so obsessed with echo quilting!). I continued the quilting down the entire 36" piece, so when i sewed it together, the back had a neat geometric quilting design.




i really really wanted to wash this, just to see the linen crinkle up, but i didn't entirely trust the Pearl Bracelets fabric not to run - the dye quality isn't quite as fabulous with this line as it has been with other lines, and it made me nervous!




i just did a simple boxed corner to create some depth to the tote, and added natural cotton straps that are nice and wide, perfect for carrying Holly's notebooks at QuiltCon (because i know she'll be taking lots of notes!).




and i lined it with a cheerful print by Benartex that i picked up at Spool of Thread, including a zipper pocket and a little loop for her to hang her keys or a coin purse on. (it's best if we don't look too closely at the zipper, okay? i shouldn't have used a contrasting thread for topstitching...)


i didn't use any interfacing in the bag, but i did use quilt batting. that means it's easy to pack, but still sturdy! i'm super happy with how it turned out, and i think Holly is too.





i'm going to link up with a few linky parties this week, since i haven't done that in awhile.

WIP Wednesday - the rainbows and linen edition

you know when you're making something and you totally fall in love with it? every once in awhile you stop sewing to admire it and congratulate yourself on the perfect idea or the perfect fabric combination?


that was me this week. i am SO in love with how one of my swap pouches is turning out!! i'm so happy that the image i had in my head is visualizing in front of me, and i freaking love how the fabrics are interacting with each other. we all know that this doesn't happen with every project we undertake, but damn, it's awesome when it does. interestingly, every time i've felt this way it was regarding a project that i'd made with coloured linen. that's a sign, right?





so pretty!! i have to say that modern quilting has totally opened me back up to rainbows. despite growing up in the 80s, i was never super into them, because primary colours weren't my thing. i went through a brief phase in my teens of being into the pride rainbow, but even then, i tended to do things like craft my own pride jewelery out of muted shades. after that phase, i was seriously freaking tired of pride stuff, and it didn't always align with my politics, so i avoided rainbows. (thinking back, i do sort of miss my rainbow cat window decal...)





quilting has given me the excuse to buy and use fabrics in colours that i would NEVER wear, and honestly, how could anyone resist the cheerfulness of a rainbow? it just looks so happy and the colours are so harmonious. when i saw that this partner liked some of the rainbow projects floating around flickr land, i was excited for the excuse to make one!


i tried using something different for this project, and i'm curious what y'all have to say about it. i've heard people rave about fusible batting before, so when it was on sale at the fabric store, i thought i'd pick some up. i figured if nothing else, i'd have some white batting for my stash, i keep needing it at inopportune times.





however.... see that picture above? see the darker spots? meh. now i know to avoid the sections of the batting that seem to have excess glue, or, as i did here, use that side for the back. i realize that the linen i was using is super thin, but is this normal? what brand of fusible batting have you used, or where have you bought it? do you find that the adhesive is consistent? feedback welcome, please!



WIP-wise, i've got a ton of stuff on the go right now. the pouch above has just been completed, and my second pouch is soooooo close to being done. it's been delayed until i dig my magic eraser out and clean off my iron. TIP: when you're trying to clean fusible residue off your iron, don't use a cloth with a plastic tag on it, that just makes it worse. FYI!


i'm also making a smaller item to go inside each of the pouches, one of which is finished. i need to have them both done by tomorrow's guild meeting, which is actually doable - except for everything else i want to do too! i've made myself a list and it's prioritized, so as long as i don't get distracted reading Dear Prudence again (so addicted!), it's all under control.


i was hoping to make a totebag for a door prize, but that's a bit lower on the list. and i haven't even started the VMQG modern block that was this month's challenge, but oh well. as long as i get the important stuff done, and then i can just go and enjoy our anniversary meeting!


what are you working on? are you finding june and july as ridiculously busy as i am?



linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and at The Needle And Thread Network!

A Precious Tote

sometime last month i decided that i needed a new tote to carry my embroidery and such in. i thought it would be nice to have a bag that i can take to FVMQG meetings and other appointments that will always have my current project and all of its necessary supplies in it.

i dug around in my stash and came across the echino that i was hoarding, that you saw me use for a couple of the pouches that i posted last week, and thought it would be perfect. i could make myself a tote, and participate in the My Precious QAL at the same time! i had a lot on my plate, as usual, so i thought i'd just whip up a super simple totebag, the kind that there are multitudes of tutorials out there for, usually swearing that they'll take half an hour or less.

as if!

in the beginning, i had faith. i dug through my bins of notions and found some black strapping, which is quicker to use than making straps out of fabric. i found a bright pink sheet that perfectly matched the pink on the echino, and i cut out two pieces of the lining and the outer fabric. i veto'd interfacing or stabilizer, because it was supposed to be a quick tote, something that i could easily toss into another bag, etc.

i sewed the two echino pieces together, boxed the corners, and that's pretty much when the plan began to unravel. i started to think that since i was using such awesome fabric, that i'd been saving for so long, i should at least put a pocket in the tote. might as well make it useful, right?

and in order to make the pocket useful, it should probably have a zipper in it. and i have about six million zippers, so that's cool.


except for the table, rubbermaid bins and shelves in front of my carefully organized zippers, blocking the way.


i set the tote aside for a few days and worked on other stuff, contemplating the effort of moving everything around in my studio, and wondering what had possessed me to store my zipper stash in such a ridiculous place. eventually i caved and went out and bought a damn zipper.


it was at then that i realized that i would want to finish the edges inside the pocket. i contemplated setting up my serger, but decided that it would be too much work, and i'd be better off lining the pocket. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING EITHER. two minutes to set up the serger versus an hour to do the damn pocket? obviously the 60 minutes is shorter than 2 minutes, right?

so i was an idiot and lined the pocket. and since i was at it, i might as well make a long narrow pocket to hold pens, but of course i wouldn't compare the length of the pocket to the length of a standard pen, that would be too smart. so now i had a somewhat excessively long narrow pocket.


but whatever! i have precious fabric! i have strapping! i have pockets! i have lining! after i added the pockets, i sewed the rest of the tote together lickety split, and there ya go! i had a tote bag!



i totally wish i'd done fabric straps now. oh well.









and for perspective, me with multiple totes hung off my shoulder. i'll be blogging that other tote soon too.



and then it took me a month to take pictures, and i totally missed the May linkup for the My Precious QAL. whoopsidaisie. on a positive note, now it's done in plenty of time for the June link up, right?!





i'm linking this up to {Sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and Manic Monday at SewHappyGeek, and tomorrow i'll link it up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

pouches, pouches and more pouches.

i swear i'm going to post something that isn't pouch themed soon.
but i am so excited to post these. SO EXCITED. y'all don't even know how excited i am.



not only am i happy with how they turned out, they're DONE!

and that feels really damn good. i don't even know why, because i totally have projects that have been dragging along for much longer, but these sort of, i don't know, symbolized how behind i was or something.



i was originally hoping to have these finished by the May 17th VMQG meeting to show example of non-zipper closures. however, i obviously bit off more than i could chew, and instead of having one or two finished samples, i had this stack of cut out pieces and slightly sewn pouches that didn't really illustrate anything. it wasn't as huge deal, i had lots of examples of the closures themselves to show at the meeting along with a ghandout, and i compiled a big list of tutorials that i posted on the VMQG blog. but i wanted to finish these!






(aren't the bottoms all cute? i love boxed corners.)



so, going across the picture, let's start with the red pouches. these were made using a red twill that my mom picked up for me, and it was a great weight to work with.

red pouch #1!



this pouch feels really preppy to me. does it to you? it's just so neat and tidy looking! i was originally going to use d-rings with a strap, but when i went to fabricland to buy thread, i came across these rectangular rings. even better!



the rings are sewn to the flap, and then the strap comes up from the bottom seam to meet them.



this is lined with a stripe that happened to be sitting on my table. i think it's a Robert Kaufman. it worked perfectly with the simple lines of the pouch.



red pouch #2!



i love vintage buttons, and i really wanted to make a pouch that closed like this!



it's like a folio, with two "brads" and a string (ribbon) to wrap around them.



it's lined with a polka dot that was also sitting on my table. i'd say that it's a funny coincidence that i happened to have the perfect prints on my table, but really it's more indicative of how messy my table is!



tucked in behind the other pouches are these two green linen pouches. i really love the colour of this fabric, and i was experimenting with pintucks and pleats on a scrap of it, and decided to use it for pouches. plus, it was on my table. ;)

green pouch #1



does the elastic look familiar? like... a headband, maybe? that's exactly what it is! i know that most people aren't blessed with the goodness that is Dresssew, and therefore their elastic section, but most folks have dollar stores, right? plus, a pack of headbands is totally cheaper than parking downtown!



this pouch doesn't have a flap, it folds over on itself to close.



if you wanted to make your lining a bit longer than your feature fabric and have about 1/2" poking out on the back, that would be so fun too!



here's a little closeup. i kind of want to pintuck everything now!


this pouch is my example pouch, because it was originally was going to have a flap....



and that is exactly why you should make a sample! the flap wasn't really long enough, once i'd added the stabilizer to the mix, and so it didn't actually stay under the elastic... (it looks like it will, but that is the magic of a photo) in addition that, i didn't trim the stabilizer out of the seams at the top, which added way too much bulk in the seams, and my lining didn't even fit. so! lessons learned - make a sample, and trim your seam allowances!



green linen pouch #2 went much easier!



it's a pretty simple little box with two casings along the top to hold the flex frame. i wanted it to be softer than the other pouches, so instead of stabilizer, i used a layer of quilt batting. that way it's not flimsy, but it isn't stiff either.



i lined it with this awesome chevron print. am i totally late to the chevron party? i'm totally loving it lately!



the next two pouches were made using this Echino that i'd been hoarding. i made myself a totebag, which i haven't gotten around to photographing, and thought that pouches were a great use for some of the leftovers. they're the same pattern as the red pouches, but i made them a bit narrower. you can really see the difference in the group shot above, especially if you compare the flaps. they're more square, while the red pouches are more rectangular.


echino #1!



okay, so this pouch came out of me not understanding people. really! folks were talking about snap pouches, and since i always used to use heavy duty snaps on the straps of my vinyl pouches, that's totally what i thought they meant. turns out that they meant metal snap frames... which i just thought of as metal frames. but oh well. i think these snaps are a great closure too! (if you don't believe me, check out the inspiration pics i posted on the VMQG blog post) the visible silver gives a different look - i'm picturing antique bronze snaps with a brown toned print. wouldn't that be pretty?



i added loops to these pouches, but because the Echino is a heavier weight fabric, i offset the ends of the strap when i sewed it into the seam. i didn't try to sew that many layers!



echino #2!

i really like this one. i got to use one of my big vintage buttons, which always makes me happy, and the super bright pink elastic. (which is also from the dollar store hair accessories section)



i might topstitch the flap though. hmm. topstitching just looks so good on the red pouches!



you can kinda see the lining under the flap. it's just a pink cotton solid, nothing too exciting, but it matched really well.



i'm not used to thinking about the nap of fabric anymore, since all i've been doing for so long now is quilts! since i was trying to waste as little of the echino as possible, i lay the pattern pieces sideways. it isn't obvious for any of the other dots, just this grey one with an obviously directional print! honestly though, i'm cool with it.



and i've saved the best for last! echino pouch #3, the eensy edition!!



omg, i LOVE this pouch. seriously, LOVE. lookit how cute it is!



the pieces fit into the circles of the echino fabric, so the front and back are drastically different - but the same fabric!



i used a pattern that i found here (the puffy version, obviously), though i had to size it down slightly to fit into my frame. however! learn from my mistake! there was a pattern in the package for the frame! i didn't open it until i got to that point, so i didn't know! next time, i'll use the provided pattern for the upper part that fits in the frame, and use this puffy pattern for the body.



it perfectly fits the stupidly tiny IPOD Nano that i got for christmas (it's way smaller than my sadly departed 2nd generation nano), and keeps it from turning itself on and killing the battery in my bag (my old one had a lock button. can you tell i want my old one back!? i'm still bitter that it died) it's lined in the same pink cotton as the other echino pouches.



it's tiny! here it is next to my phone, just for size comparison (and no, i haven't caved and got a fancy one yet! do you know how late i was to the ipod trend?).


these metal frame pouches are sO EASY. seriously! we all think they're scary, no doubt in a huge part due to how expensive the frames can be, but they're so easy and fun to do. i kind of want to make a ton of them, but i have no idea what i'd do with them, they're so little!


i used a different kind of glue that what everyone else recommends, and i'm going to tell you about it, cause this shit is the bomb. no, really. it's that awesome. it's called Glossy Accents, and it's made by Ranger, who make inks and stuff for scrapbooking. i have it from when i was doing mixed media, and i've honestly used it for so many things. it dries clear, and shiny (um, it has the word glossy in the name), and it's super strong. it'll attach heavy-ass-shit to canvases and assemblages, and i haven't really come across a situation that it doesn't work for. i pretty much use it every time they tell you to use super glue. but unlike super glue, it doesn't dry out completely (i use a pin to clear out the nozzle), and it doesn't damage plastic (super glue turns some plastics cloudy). i've probably had this bottle for 5 years now, and it's still more than half full. it has a great applicator tip, it's non-toxic (unlike a lot of glues) and it dries fairly quickly, and it's available anywhere you can buy scrapbooking store - ie, the big name stores with 40% off coupons! i have no idea how well it would wash, but that's irrelevant for a coin purse anyway. it's totally a kick-ass product.



whew. that's the end of this extremely long post about pouches. thank you if you read this far! which one is your favourite? okay, which one other than the coin purse, is your favourite? ha! suggestions of what to do with them are welcome, now i have too many pouches!



in other news, thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Play Mini Quilt Competition! i came in third for most popular, which frankly kind of blows me away. there were some really amazing mini quilts made! even though i didn't win any of the awarded prizes, the Random Number Generator was very kind, and i won a random prize! yay for a gift certificate for FABRIC!




i'm linking this up to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story and Manic Monday Tuesday at SewHappyGeek cause it's been ages since i've linked up to anything!

Bleach Discharge BATS!

Happy Halloween!!


i've been saving this to post today!



this quilt isn't really my style. for one thing, it's brown. weird, huh?



but i just couldn't resist playing with this technique.

this entire quilt front is one fabric. just one. not two colourways of the same print, the exact same fabric.



i precut the squares for the front, and then used a bleach and water solution in a regular household spray bottle to remove the colour. i used rubber bats as stencils, and because they didn't lay entirely flat against the fabric, the bleach hit each fabric square differently, depending on the angle i held the spray bottle at.



for the words, i printed the letters out onto freezer paper, cut them out, and ironed them on before spraying. you can tell that i didn't rinse the fabric well enough before i sewed it together and pressed it, because the heat of the iron made a bit more colour discharge than i'd really wanted.

i sandwiched the wall quilt with cotton batting, and i didn't think, but i should have used a synthetic batting so that it wouldn't shrink as much. oh well!



i quilted free hand around each bat shape and around the letters. i really like how you can see how different each bat is from the back!



i did zigzag quilting through the sashing, and quilted in the ditch around each square and the larger sashing. i used some of the extra bleached fabric for the hanging sleeve, corner bits and the label.



as usual, machine embroidered label. note that it says september 2010!

i did the majority of this quilt last year, but i never got around to binding it. somehow, as months passed, the extra fabric for the binding got separated from the quilt itself, and they were put away into two different WIPs bins (yes, i have two. it's ridiculous, i know) when i did a big studio clean up a few months ago, i came across both, and took them with me to Krista's retreat at the beginning of the month.

i managed to get the binding attached at the retreat, and fused down, and a few weeks later i added the hanging sleeve and stitched it all down. it's finally done. yay!!




i'm linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday. this doesn't feel super modern to me, but i think that the discharge technique is... so i'm including it. modern's subjective anyway, right? i probably should have linked up my Sherbet Pips quilt instead, but come one, it's HALLOWEEN!! you should pop over to Canoe Ridge Creations and check out Megan's pumpkin!



i'm also linking up to Maniac Monday over at Sew Happy Geek! Jenna's had some great guest posters while she's been recovering, along with some fabulous tutorials. my favourites are Sarah's paperpieced spider web placemat tutorial and Jess's patchwork Terrain skirt.