On the Road to Spring - Week 4 - postponed!

This was the most intimidating part for me, as I'm kind of obsessive about keeping the lines all straight and together. I kept telling myself that I'd have to accept some mistakes, as they can't all be perfect; but I still procrastinated this step for days! Consequently, I have to take a week and postpone this one's update! I hope you'll all stay tuned with me, ans I try and work through my fears and finish my quilt!

On the Road to Spring Quiltalong - Week 3

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." (From the Burns' Poem, To a Mouse)

Alright, so I really shouldn't be complaining, because I did get a fairly quick start on this project, and it's my very first real quilt (although I'm done a small amount of piecing and patchwork before.) But, I am reluctant to admit that I've only made a bit of progress since last week - putting together the remaining 6 strips to total 20 finished quilt strips.

I'm a tiny bit nervous about the next step - piecing the strips together to form the top... as the squares might not all line up quite right (and if you read my blog, you'll know how anal I am about that sort of thing!) I hope to get at least half of the strips together by next week, and if I'm really going for it, maybe the entire top! (That's reaching, I know, hehe.)

On the Road to Spring Quiltalong - Week 2

I wish I had more progress to show off this week (and pics!,) but I've only managed to finish piecing a few more strips (I only have 14 of 20 completed. Bummer!)

Next, I'm onto sewing them all up together to form the top; but, I'm starting to wonder just how long that will take me! Haha! It is a fun project, working with my own fabric though! Just not a quickie project, although what decent sized blanket (handmade, people!) wouldn't take some time and effort to complete.

On the Road to Spring Quiltalong - Week 1

Wow, what a week! I broke half my craft table last Monday night, unfortunately before I'd cut the corduroy squares (but thankfully after I'd managed to get the yardage ironed!) So yeah, it wasn't looking like the easiest week ever, piecing all the strips together on one half my regular work space...

So, I only managed to get 7 strips pieced together so far, but here they are!

It's a little tricky keeping the nap of the corduroy going only in one direction, but the print is a little easier to manage, I'm trying to keep the pattern intact. So, instead of just turning the strips around when I piece them together, I'm assembling them differently. 

Half get the regular treatment of rectangle then square (5 times for each strip,) and the other half start of with a square patch, and then I add the rectangle. I tried to be clever in my construction because I'm so obsessive about details on the back end of finished items (that is to say later, when I'm using them/looking at them!)

Big thanks go to DH, who fixed my craft table for me last night! Yeay!  Here's links to my first post about my quilt, and the inspiration - Randi's Quiltalong.

On the Road to Spring Quiltalong - The Start

I read Randi's blog regularly, so when I caught in my RSS feed that she was organizing a quilt-along I knew I wanted in. And then, the Ravelympics hit me, and I set super high expectations for myself... I think it was a good lesson in juggling my biggest craft priorities right now, and I'm really pleased to share with you my very first quilt ever - and the first progress pictures of it! Yeay! :)

I decided to use the fabric I won in Spoonflower's first contest. The colors weren't quite right (which is odd, because I'd proofed the printed fabric before that, and hadn't made any changes to my pattern file;) and it's been sitting around my craft room ever since. So, when I read how much fabric I'd need for this quilt my mind immediately jumped to the 2 pieces totaling 5yds of my cocoa squiggle stripe print. It was a bold decision, to use only one print fabric, instead of the ten different prints as suggested. But, I have a very good visual brain that helps me to see things in my mind, almost as clear as pictures - and I knew my concept would work. (Not trying to sound arrogant, it was also the novelty of making a quilt with my very own fabric print!)

The keystone to my plan was to keep the neutral squares plain in color, but texture-rich; the chocolate fine wale corduroy works beautifully, and I had about a half-yard of this teal denim. It's smoother than the corduroy, but the color worked so well with my print, and I love a bit of bold contrast thrown into the mix! Plus, only having a tiny amount of the teal gave me a great design challenge of exactly where I'd place the teal squares!

I had to back my own print with muslin, it was too transparent next to the other, thicker fabrics. Good thing I had a bunch of it in my fabric stash! It was a lot of extra work to double the HUNDRED rectangles I'd already cut; but in the end, I think it'll be worth it - when I'm not nit-picking about how I could have made it better - to death!

So, there's my fabric picks (I wanted to photo them all done & cut, but I still need to pre-wash and cut the corduroy.) I haven't quite decided on the backing fabric, but I have a few options (including more of my own cocoa squiggle stripe fabric, yeay!) I'll also need to decide on binding, but I figure I can make both of those decisions a little farther down the road, hahaha!

WIP Wednesday - Quilted Patchwork Bag

I finally got some time to work on my sister's belated Christmas present - the Amy Butler Patchwork Bag. At first I was hoping the book would have pattern pieces for this bag, but upon closer inspection the only pattern piece provided was for the zipper pull charm (which is just 2 circles, folks! LOL) The bag itself is all right angles, so I'm left to measure out all of my rectangles. It isn't too tough, but the AB pattern pieces are on nice paper, instead of tissue paper; and I was hoping to get the chance to work with a non-tissue pattern. (Tissue's really not that bad, but it can be tricky!)

I must also add, that I purchased a clear quilting ruler for this project, and boy, I couldn't be MORE pleased with it. It seemed expensive, at 12$ for a 4 1/2" by 12 1/2" clear ruler, but with all of the markings it has on it, and how well it works with my cutting mat, it saved me tons of time cutting & scoring packaging for The Sampler. If you don't have a quilting ruler, I'd HIGHLY recommend it! It's going to make cutting 1" squares for tsumami kanzashi flowers even easier and more precise than with my cork-backed steel ruler. And, more precise squares of fabric mean they're easier to fold into each petal, and less hassle to handle & sew together. Hooray!

I'm also happy to announce that I'll be adding patchwork bags to my Etsy store soon, of course with tsumami kanzashi flowers on them! I really like making bags, I think it's so much more fun to carry something unique, rather than something there's 18,000 of out there!

WIP Amy Butler Patchwork Bag

For Christmas last year, I told my sister that I'd like to make her a bag. I made one for my Mom, and thought she might like a handmade one as well. I let her pick what she wanted, and it turned out that she picked the Patchwork bag in the back of Amy Butler's book, In Stitches. Needless to say, we both procrastinated on picking out fabrics, because I just bought these last Thursday with her! LOL

I'm really pleased with our selections, even though blue & red isn't my favorite color palette (20 bonus points for whoever can guess what my favorite color palette is! LOL) We started with the Asian girls, and built the others around it, and I'm hoping it will look very nice patched together and quilted.

Now, I just have to decide what pattern I'm going to piece the side panels together with (I'm thinking maybe log cabins,) and the pattern & spacing of the quilting lines! All of the fabrics are cotton quilting, and so I picked up some thick Peltex interfacing to give the finished bag a stiffer shape. The pattern calls for heavyweight upholstery fabrics, but I think the cotton will quilt better, and it's definitely easier to work with!

On another note, I'd love to hear where you buy fabric - especially for Japanese prints! I prefer to buy in person, in a store; but I live pretty far outside Chicago, so trips downtown are usually just a couple times a year. Internet shopping is certainly more convienent, but it can be tricky (somtimes impossible!) to match colors or coordinate prints. My favorite online fabric stores are - Fashion Fabrics Club, Fabric Tales and Reprot Depot, I also love Vogue Fabric (they have an online store too!)

FO - Quilted Patchwork Purse

Ok, so I'm more than a year behind everyone else on this, but when I saw the tutorial on Autum's blog, Creative Little Daisy, I knew I had to make one myself. This was actually a belated Christmas present for my Mother, who is understanding enough to not make me feel too bad about it's timing. I found the ribbon on the handle first, and just loved the combo of pink, purple and orange. Then I found the purple minky fabric, and knew what I was going to turn it all into.


Well as it turns out, the minky doesn't quilt well, so I decided to leave those panels blank. Originally, I was planning on alternating the quilting thread color on each panel, but when I decided to leave the purple blank, I knew that would be the right choice for the quilting. I also decided mid-project to add cording between the outer body and the lining, although I kept it very petite.

The orange stretch twill I used came from a remnant, and it had "Sample" marks all over it, so I didn't have enough to do the lining out of it. It worked well for the cording, and I used more of the pink stretch twill for the lining. It was a little thick, but I used a scrap of the purple minky for a gathered patch pocket, and so I think it all worked out well. I'm meeting my Mom for lunch on Thursday, and I hope she likes it!

The handle is 1" nylon webbing with minky fabric over it, and ribbon sewn on top. I was worried my machine might not sew through the webbing, but I actually had more problems with the final top-stitching at the side seams than anything else. I sewed the magnestic closures and the tops of the pocket to the lining for extra strength (by hand.) If you have any questions, feel free to ask!