Finally! Fat Quarterly QAL Quilt!

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that if you were only going by what I post here, you’d probably be wondering why the hell I’m so involved with a quilt guild, since I seem to do so little quilting. You’d be totally wrong, but I wouldn’t blame you at all. It’s funny actually, since I’ve been so obsessive about photographing and recording stuff I make for years now, way before blogs took off. The problem is, quilts don’t fit on my dressform!

Living by myself, and not being able to convince my sister to model for me, means that I don’t always get good pictures. My apartment isn’t big enough to have a quilt’s worth of wall space clear, and I don’t have a nice lush yard like some bloggers. I’ve considered taking my quilts to the park across the street, if only the park had a clothesline....

So a few weeks ago, on a rare non-rainy day (we’ve had the wintery-ist spring here, it’s miserable), I got myself organized, took a stack of quilts over to my parent’s house and forced my mom to stand in front of the cherry tree holding them out. Finally, pictures!!


Now I can try to catch up on posting some past projects!
This is probably the oldest project. I posted a few in progress photos, but I realized that I’d never photographed the end result. Remember the Fat Quarterly Quilt-a-long? And my pretty quilt that I was making out of vintage linens?


I finished it, and it’s been hanging out on my couch with me for months now.







Sofie’s decided that it’s hers. I actually had to wash it before I could take pictures, it was so covered in black and white fur.

Here it is entirely.



I quilted it with wavy horizontal lines. I used a stitch setting on my machine, so it was super easy. The stitch could have actually been wider, but my walking foot needed a larger open area!


I added some appliquéd hexagons scattered across the quilt. They were sofie’s fault actually – she loves the quilt so much that before it was even done, she kneaded at it and pulled the threads in one of the blocks. I’d already started quilting, so it would have been a huge hassle to replace it, so I covered it up! Besides, as much as I love hexies, I’ll never get around to actually handsewing them all together for anything, appliqué is a much better use!




The back is a full sheet with pink roses, very simple, but you can see the quilting I did.


I made a label using a bit of kona cotton and a strip of one of the sheets from the front.

Stripey Apron and More made of vintage sheets

i think i mentioned a while ago that i joined a swap on flickr. if you've been following my blog for long enough, you'd know that i used to swap on craftster.org A LOT. i haven't done many swaps in a long time, and the few that i have done have been single projects, with no specific focus on the recipient. this swap was really fun to do because the theme was really open, just kitchen goodies, and i got to "stalk" my partner and try to guess what she'd like. that was always my favourite part of swapping, the inspiration from my partner, the excuse to make things that i wouldn't make otherwise.

i crafted for Melinda of quirky granola girl.


i read over the info that she wrote on her swap questionnaire, spent wwaaaaaayy too long browsing through her flickr favourites, and read back through her blog looking for ideas.

she said that she likes green, blue and aqua for colours, as well as yellow and orange, and cotton, linen, polka dots and stripes as patterns. looking through her blog i saw that she likes vintage sheets and string quilts, and her flickr favourites showed that she liked linen with prints, and fun little pouches. i read that she recently participated in a fabric swap for I Spy fabric, and last year she was in a tea towel swap.

the main project i made for the swap was an apron - which was pretty likely, given how apron obsessed i've been! but also because Melinda said that she'd like one. ;)

i wanted to stay away from ruffles, lots of gathering, that sort of thing, so i made the apron to have a bit of fullness without having to gather the fabric - i see aprons that are straight up and down, without any fullness, but they seem really impractical to me. sometimes you need protection even when you're not standing up straight like a mannequin, right!?



i used strips of vintage sheets in shades of blue, green and a bit of aqua, primarily in dots and stripe patterns, and sewed them directly to a piece of white twill weight cotton to add a bit of strength and weight to the sheets. if you think of quilt as you go strip piecing, that's basically what i did, with no batting.





i sewed the three pattern pieces together, and added a trim of blue rickrack around all of the edges - i like the added pop of colour that it adds.



i created striped pleats along the bottom - again, avoiding ruffles.



i used the polka dot sheet to make straps, and used D-rings at the top of the bib to make the neck strap adjustable.





and i lined it in kona cotton to make everything all neat and tidy.



i really really love how it turned out - it was hard to give up!




and then there were the extras. the apron took longer than i thought it would, and then i was in the art jewelery/enameling classes with Richard Salley last weekend, which totally wiped me out, so i wasn't able to finish it as soon as i would have liked. and then i decided to add the tea towel, and didn't realize that i had to let the paint cure for 24hrs.... so i felt bad, and made a little linen pouch to add in.



the first thing i wanted to make was a matching potholder, and it seemed obvious to go with a string quilt block.



because Melinda isn't very fond of insulbrite, and prefers fulled wool inside potholders, i went off to the thrift store to pick up a sweater (any excuse for thrifting!).

i think the sweater i used was too thick - i thought it would be great for a potholder, but didn't think about struggling to quilt through it! but it did give the stripes great definition -



the back was just the same white twill - i wanted something thicker than one of the sheets so that the sweater didn't show through.


and then the tea towel. i made this silkscreen years ago, and keep meaning to haul it and a few others out to make patches, but never seem to get around to it. this was the perfect excuse! i used Jacquard textile ink to silkscreen. it's a fun iridescent blue/green colour.




and then the final project, a cute little linen pouch. i used more rickrack - i really hope Melinda doesn't hate rickrack! i wanted to pair linen with a print, and used the vintage trim to pull out the colours a bit.



i used a vintage orange zipper, and lined the pouch with orange kona. (i love kona, but you've probably figured that out by now)





i rounded out the package with some canadian chocolate, for grown ups as well as her little boy, and a little stack of I Spy squares from my stash.





i always get so focused on what i'm making for swaps that i forget that i'll be receiving as well - but i'm definitely going to be watching the mail next week!

pretty pretty apron!!

i have pictures from the sewing and craft expo this weekend, and of the two aprons that i made for the contest, and hopefully i'll get them edited and uploaded aoon.



in the meantime, i realized that i never posted this apron! i finished it about a month ago, and have plans for many more - as soon as i find the time. i used my vintage pillowcase apron tutorial that i wrote up in 2009, and it came together very easily, except for the fact that i kept changing my mind and ripping bits out. i was very indecisive the day i started it!

in progress


front


back


with the tie wrapped back around to the front


and the side


isn't it pretty?? i love the crochet detail.

quilt-a-long progress...

i'm puttering away at the quilt-a-long project, working on it in snippets as i feel up to it, and i'm actually doing pretty good, considering how crappy i've been feeling!

i finished sewing and pressing all of the blocks, like i mentioned in my last post, and then i had to think about how i was going to lay them out.

i don't have a design wall, or room to put one up, and while i know lots of people use their floor, there's no way my back would've handled that this week! i decided to try laying it out on a smaller scale....

i took the pattern drawing of the quilt top, and played around with it in photoshop. i'd divided my blocks up by the main colour, and had piles of white, pink, green, blue and purple. i counted how many i had of each, and then coloured in that many blocks on the pattern drawing. i had some blocks that were stripes, and i wanted to make sure that i kept them right side up, so i added the little stars on those to keep myself organized.



then i took the pattern drawing and played around with it a bit more. i decided to go with the idea suggested in the flickr group and alternate every second block, and i wanted my diagram to indicate that, again so that i could remember to keep the stripes going the right direction.



i printed out both pages, and used my paper rotary cutter to cut out the coloured blocks. i played around with them, arranging them on top of the pattern diagram.



once i was happy with my layout, i transferred my decisions onto the blank diagram.



THEN i laid the blocks out on the floor! i knew i was going to have to at some point, but as it was, i did one or two rows at a time, taking breaks in between. i followed the colour order i'd decided up with the paper, and tried to mix up the fabrics and shades.



because it was laid out on the floor, it was hard to get a good view of it from a distance. i took some pictures of it, and used a filter (palette knife) in photoshop to make the designs less noticeable, so that i could focus entirely on how the colours looked together.



i decided there was a bit too much pale blue in the middle, and switched a few blue blocks around to spread it out more.

once i had the order i wanted, i labeled them all with masking tape. i could have just piled them up in rows and labeled the top block, but i wanted to be able to chain piece them, working on all the rows at once.


and then i stitched the rows up, pressed them, then stitched the rows together, again, a little bit at a time. i pinned the rows carefully, so that my seams would meet up, and actually basted a few stitches at each intersection, to be sure that it was right before i sewed it with my 1.8 stitch.

and the top was done! huraay!!



this is a kinda crappy photo, but it's the best that i can do for now. i don't have much free space in my apartment to take pictures! the seams definitely won't be as noticeable, when the top is laid against batting instead of a dark green fortrel curtain!



after all that, i can't decide if i like it or not. i think i'll probably end up liking it once it's all finished, but now i'm kind of feeling blegh about it. we'll see!

Quilt-A-Long!

in other quilty news....

i jumped into Fat Quarterly's Quilt-A-Long!



i've been working on so much stuff that's required planning and thought and MATH lately that i was super into the idea of a project that had instructions and would be simple to do, and when i ran across it, i instantly wanted to join in. i started late, but i'm almost caught up!

the first blog post talks about what materials you'll need, the second post a week later gives you cutting instructions, in the third post they gave the assembly instructions, and yesterday's post was the top assembly.

i've spent a bit too much on fabric lately, so i didn't want to go buy more, but i really wanted to use fabrics that fit together, ya know? the idea was to use a jell roll or fat quarters, but none of the quilt stores near me sell jelly rolls, and since i was already late i didn't have time for shipping anyway. and i didn't feel like my fat quarters were cohesive enough.

someone at the guild meeting on thursday showed a piece they were working on using vintage sheets, and a lightbulb went off in my head! of course! i have TONS of vintage sheets, because i've been collecting them for a few years now (i even joined a swap of vintage sheet fat quarters last year!). i keep planning on making quilts with them, but never seem to think of them when i'm starting a new project. though they're different colour schemes, most of them are fairly similar in style, perfect for this quilt!

so i off i went to my parent's house, where the majority of my fabric is stored, and i went through my sheets and pillowcases. this quilt uses so little of each fabric, really, and since i have about 2 rubbermaids full, i had lots of variety! i skipped goldy yellow/green/brown toned sheets, and any that had super flower powery bold prints, and still ended up with a great selection.

this is where i was at yesterday afternoon -

my 39 finished blocks


and the remaining 41


by the time i went to bed last night, i'd finished sewing the last 41 blocks, but they still need to be pressed. (that's tonight's job) then i'll need to plot out which ones will go where, and start sewing the rows! some folks in the fat quarterly flickr group are talking about rotating every second block, to reduce bulk at the joins, and i think i like that idea... we'll see!

Oct/06 - Patchwork Duvet

i made a duvet cover. it was a hell of a lot more time intensive than originally planned! that's why i left it at stripes instead of squares. i'd never have finished it if i'd done squares! it was pricier than i'd planned too, all those sheets added up! (it's made of vintage sheets, with a layer of broadcloth to make it less opaque, cause i wasn't sure if her duvet was white or not)

but i really like it. not my style at all, but i REALLY like it. a lot more than i thought i would, truth be told.



it's a full square, you just can't see the sides cause my bed isn't a full square. and there's a lot more green in it, but those strips are along the sides, which you can't see. i cut off a bit at the bottom in the picture. oops. i took the picture standing on a stool holding the camera over my head, cause i was too lazy to bring the ladder inside just for the picture!