Outfoxed!!! Quilt!!! Improv is Foxy!!!

it's done!! hurray!!

i'm so excited about this quilt! i'm so proud of it, and i want to dance around and show it to everyone i know. ta-da!! yaay!!



remember, i posted my in progress picture the other day? it looks different, huh?



to recap, the fabric line i'm working with is Outfoxed, designed by Lizzy House for Andover.
the fabric isn't available most places yet - Spool of Thread was one of the first in North America to receive it, which NEVER happens in Canada! i went in to pick up a yard of Kona for something else, and there it was! I'd seen it online, and yeah, it's cute, but honestly, it is so AWESOME in person! i added a few Konas, amber, lupine, tangerine, plum and sable.

i started out with a wonky log cabin. after i'd made it as wide as i wanted the finished quilt, give or take, i cut it into two. i added strips to the top of one side and the bottom of the other, and a few in the middle to add a bit more width, and sewed them back together.



this was the sketch that I started with, the only sketch i did. this was my first real improv quilt. for all the quilts i've done in the past, i've plotted out a lot more details, and measured a lot more. i'm so happy with how it turned out!






i used two different colours of thread to quilt it, an orangey yellow for the vertical quilting, and a plummy purple for the horizontal quilting.



i "quilted the crap out of it", as usual! i purposely didn't wear quilting gloves, so i didn't have a great grip on the quilt as i was quilting, and i quilted it quickly (though it still took forever!), purposely allowing the lines to swerve a bit, and not end up perfectly straight.



for the larger Outfoxed print, i quilted around the triangle trees and along some of the branches.





i backed it with a solid brown flannelette, because i LOVE flannelette backings, especially when the quilting is super heavy.



the label is a kona, though i don't remember what the colour is called. i try to always use preshrunk fabric when i'm machine embroidering, because it'll pucker when it shrinks otherwise. i have a seperate stash of preshrunk konas for hand and machine embroidery. i really wanted to include the selvedge in my label, but somehow, with all of the prints that i bought, i didn't manage to get a full selvedge that included both the name of the fabric line, Outfoxed, and Lizzy House, the designer's name.



i was going to give this away, and i know that my planned recipient would love it - but i love it too! plus, there's this..... i have a different idea for a quilt to give away, so i think this one will live with me instead.


i'm linking this up with {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday (once it posts!). i'm also entering it in Stitched in Color's Celebrate Color - and as i said the other day, i know that i used the same fabric as the prize for October, which feels kind of weird, in that "wearing a band tshirt to the concert" kind of way, but oh well. i'll live with it, because i just couldn't resist the fabric!





and because i'm so excited about it, i'm also linking it to amylouwho's new Sew and Tell Fridays, amanda jean of crazy mom quilt's Finish It Up Friday, and Angie of Stitching by Starlight's Finished It Friday.

Foxy Christmas Fabrics

i signed up for my first charm swap, and i'm excited! It's a Modern Christmas Fabric swap, organized by Emily over at the Strawberry Patch, and the flickr group is already looking veeeerrrryyy promising!

i went out today to buy my fabric, because i'm one of the international partipants, so i need to send my charm squares with plenty of time. i'm not worried, because mail seems to get to the UK faster than it gets the 30 min across the border to the US, what the hell canada post. but anyway, i wanted to get that done, and not leave it to the last minute, like i usually do. i very naively believed that i could get to Fabricana and then back over the Patullo bridge before 3pm, when they shut the exit to the bridge that i use, and i have to go the long, busy, annoying route, but of course, that totally didn't happen! i didn't factor in the ridiculous construction, and after leaving the store i sat for half an hour and traveled about 2km. i decided that was a sign, and took the scary bridge instead (the Port Mann, it freaks me out!), which meant that i drove right past Fabricland on the way home. dangerous!

i had to get thread anyway, so i decided to check out their holiday fabric... and found the rack of last year's discounted fabric! most of it was pretty traditional, but it will totally work for christmas gift bags to go under my parent's traditional tree! so i bought a bunch. 4 metres of a red that was $3.60/m (and it's glittery! i'm such a drag queen.) and 6 metres of this great lime green and red print that was $2.60/m. awesome! i guess the lime green and red could be considered modern... but as perfect as it will be for gift bags, i didn't think it felt like good enough quality for the charm swap. i picked up a few other bits of the discount fabric, and resisted the temptation to buy Michael Miller xmas prints (aqua and red! deer!!).

these are the two i decided on for xmas swaps. since the FVMQG is doing fq swaps at guild meetings, i needed a metre of christmas fabric for the november meeting anyway. i figured i'd get two options, and one would be for charms, the other for fqs. i haven't decided which is which yet though!



the fabric on the left is Jovial by Basic Grey for Moda and the fabric on the right is by Have a Sheri Berry Holiday by Sheri Berry for Lyndhurst Studio. i made a tablecloth and a mini tree skirt out of that Sheri Berry holiday line last year, though i don't think i ever took pictures of it! the Moda is a bit creamier in person, and the Sheri Berry is a bit more aqua or minty. as much as i like their designs, and liked them in scrapbooking before they even start designing fabric, i personally don't feel that the Basic Grey is super modern. i think it's because of the cream undertone, but i know that a lot of other folks do. (i don't think that sweetwater is that modern either, sorry!) honestly, Fabricana's christmas selection was kind of sad. i wonder if it was too eearly, and they'll get more? hm.

also, i'm wondering, because i'm the kind of geek who loves this shit*, do you think that the fabric selection would be different if it was a swap with primarily North American participants? i'm really not trying to police what is modern, or anything like that, and all of the fabrics that have been added to the flickr group are lovely, so i'm not being critical, i just started wondering how the different nationalities of bloggers might change their opinions and views. there are lots of bloggers from the UK and from Australia, and then us Canadians, and of course, the Americans. is modern quilting different in different places? it's curious.

*i really do love stuff like that, looking at regional differences. and on that note, if someone can properly explain why Brits and Australians call muslin "calico", i'd love them forever! it just doesn't make sense! what do they call calico cats in the UK?


also, since i've been nattering away at you, i figured i might as well show off an in progress shot of my Outfoxed project. yes, i did JUST post that i purchased the fabric, but i couldn't resist it! i'm further along now than i was when i took this, and i'm hoping to pin baste it tomorrow, but this is where it was at the other day -



i love this fabric so much. i told myself that i wasn't going to follow fabric trends for the fall and the winter. i honestly didn't think that there was anything that i HAD to have (except ruby star spring, of course!) but when i saw this line in person, i fell in love. it looks so much nicer in person, seriously. i have scraps left, and i'm thinking of making a cushion out of them... not sure i have enough, but we'll see!


and i'm linking up to Fabric Tuesday!

nevermind the black, how about some pink?

i mentioned the other day that i was working on a project in a very non-amy dame colour scheme, and i thought i'd interrupt the halloween love that i've been posting (and will continue to post) to show you.

other canadians are probably familiar with the United Way, though i'm not sure if they exist in the states as well. basically they're a big charity. they raise money, and then distribute it to community projects and programs. personally, i'm not a huge fan of them, because i've worked non-profits, and know what a freaking hassle it is to jump through the rings that the United Way creates for even small amounts of funding, but they do provide easy ways for people to donate who wouldn't otherwise, and there's definitely value in that (i just think it's better to donate directly), and they do provide funding for really vital community programs. (though your definitions of vital may be different than theirs)

every fall they have a huge campaign in workplaces across the country that involves signing people up to donate through their payroll system and a whole bunch of fundraising within the workplace. my office does a giant book sale, bake sales, random activities, a silent auction, etc, but the big thing that everyone loves is the basket raffle. a group of people or a section of the workplace gets together and picks a theme and gathers up fun things to put in a basket, then everyone buys tickets and puts their tickets in the baskets that they really want to win. people do sports themes, scratch&win trees, christmas themes, etc. the alcohol baskets used to be hugely popular, but the provincial fundraising rules have changed around that, so we can't have booze or booze gift certificates anymore. sometimes people just pool their money and rather than buying a bunch of stuff to fill a basket, they buy one big ticket item, like an xbox or a wii.

this year my work area decided to do two baskets, one tea/coffee themed, and the other breast cancer awareness themed, since it's october.

i wanted to contribute, but i know that a lot of the "pink" products out there don't actually raise much, if any, money for cancer research. and besides that, i also wanted to do something that wasn't just a generic item with a pink ribbon slapped onto it.

so i made a pillow. and i really like how it turned out, even if it's not my usual style!

i remembered seeing quilting fabric with pink ribbons on it, so i went searching for that. i tried a few local quilting shops with no luck, and ended up at fabricland, where i found 3 prints, ranging in price from $5 to $18 a metre. i totally lucked out in that the $5 print was the one i liked best! i carried it around with me, gathering up other pinks. it was harder than i'd expected, actually, peachy pink shades aren't super popular right now, but i managed to find enough to have some variety in my pillow.

i started with this breast cancer awareness embroidery design that was a freebie from embroidery library last october (they have a different freebie this year).



after i'd stitched that (on preshrunk twill that was in my stash - i prefer not to preshrink when i'm quilting, but you have to if you're embroidering), i laid the fabrics out next to it to decide on their order, then cut strips of varying widths and sewed them around the embroidery log cabin courthouse steps style.



i sandwiched together the pillow top, some cotton batting, and a backing fabric and quilted twice on each strip, a bit in from the seam on each side. i ended up with an extra strip that didn't fit once i started sewing, so i used it for a piping style trim around the pillow. the back was just a standard envelope style pillow backing, made out of the ribbon print fabric.




in addition to the pillow, i decided to do some free standing lace (fsl) designs for the basket as well.

i found this ribbon design from embroidery library, and stitched up a few in pink to use as ornaments.



i also found this design, which is actually intended to be a bracelet (child size, given my hoop limitations), but i decided to make it into a bookmark instead.



after i'd stitched it all out, i found matching embroidery floss in my stash and made tassels for each end of it. once again, not my style at all, but i really like how it turned out.



(you might have noticed that i'm a bit obsessed with fsl at the moment!)

so that's what i did for the basket. my coworkers were all super impressed with everything, especially the pillow, though of course, when it came to decide on a value for it to include in the basket listing, they had no concept of the actual value of an item that isn't factory sweatshop made. not unexpected, unfortunately!



i also made something fun for the coffee/tea basket, and i'll post that soon as well.

winter/00 - pillows!

i made these in the fall of 2000, but i just took pictures this spring.

i made this for my oldest friend. she and i have had a running "fishy-fishy" thing going since we were about 12, so i made her this pillow for xmas 2000. the bali looked like water, and i loved the fish fabric. then i handsewed silver irridescent beads all around the edges and along al the seam lines.


she's had it on her bed for almost 7 years now, so it's lost a lot of beads!
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i did some mediocre embroidery on the back...

and jaydee has this obsession with puple tulips, and i love them too, so i made him this pillow. it's a combo of regular cotton and flannelette, and it's getting really worn. it's been in my storage for about 5 years! he keeps asking for me to send it to him, and i keep forgetting. kind on purpose, cause i'm not particularily that proud of it. plus, it needs to be fixed up a bit. i hate using cotton thread, it breaks so easy!

i was keeping with the traditional light/dark sides of the log cabin.

again with the mediocre embroidery!