I have a certain number of babies looming on the horizon - gotta love that imagery - and it seemed important to learn how to make a quick, nice baby gift. I tried out a bib pattern from www.jcasa.etsy.com, and I am now officially a bibthusiast.

There’s something really satisfying about a project of this size. It’s a bigger canvas than I usually have for my eye masks, but still far from being cumbersome.

Okay, bibs. I think we can make this work.

I haven’t read a good book all the way through since… (I’m looking it up on Goodreads) May.

I don’t even feel bad! The swirling tornado of the Wakefield Twins, the Dollangangers, and all things Tori Spelling have gotten me through starting a job, sweltering heat, Maker Faire, AND Renegade SF. Not too shabby.

My only lament is that there aren’t many teen-trash inspired crafts. Unless you count Twilight, which I also read this year, but I just can’t get worked up about that series. Sorry, everybody.

All an etsy search yielded was this magnificent accessory, which is a pretty good way of paying homage to Jessica and Elizabeth’s improbable adventures in… was it Kansas?

Buy it here.

And, of course, there’s the much lauded SVH Bathroom Art.

Still, I think we can do better. Babysitters’ Club embroidery, anyone?

I don’t do as much custom work as I used to. I’m happy to to do an embroidered eye quilt in a different colorway or whatever, but I’ve stopped taking most orders that are way far off my usual product line. I don’t like to seem cranky; it’s just that, for me, it’s not cost-effective. I’ve found that the most time-consuming aspect of my business is designing new product, and, in my experience, customers don’t want to pay me for the extra 3 or 4 (or more) hours it would take to, say, fit earflaps onto an eye mask. (No, that it not a request I’ve ever gotten.)

But sometimes, an opportunity comes along that I just can’t pass up, and I make an exception:

This is Trogdor, embroidered in black thread on a red hankie. No, I’m not going to get rich making this kind of thing, but man, was it fun.

I love binding things so much, I sometimes toy with the idea of starting a binding service. Does that even make sense?

Apparently, news of the Doll Quilt Craze hasn’t reached my local Bargain Box, because not only was I able to score this cutie; I was able to score it for $2!!!

It’s even reversible!

So, yeah, major score, and inspiration, too - I’ve been meaning to make quilts for my Blythes, but wasn’t sure where to start with dimension and color. This just so happens to be the perfect size to keep Pres. Roslin warm in sick bay. (Yes, I know her eyes are the wrong color. I’m working on that.)

Speaking of BSG, I got some good press this week, which thrilled me to no end. Not because it’s such a huge deal in and of itself, but because there are so many blogs/websites/publications that are for crafters, by crafters, about crafters that getting attention from a totally unrelated site - specifically, sci-fi-geek-unrelated - was a huge, huge treat.

And, finally, since we’re just about to hit the end of February, I want to point out some serious quilty goodness from the Threads Together flickr group. I honestly can’t believe I own these blocks!

Which leads me back to the best quilting advice I’ve stumbled upon - USE the fabrics you love the most! I hung on to these for a couple of years, terrified of cutting into them. Finally, I left the job to some people who weren’t quite as emotionally attached and, voila! Seriously, having this quilt is going to be so much nicer than having all this yardage stacked up in my studio. Something to remember for the future!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’d started, and then quickly finished, the “Summer Breeze” quilt from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, but what I might not have mentioned was that I didn’t follow the instructions exactly.

That’s not even true. I followed them to the letter, until I didn’t.

If you own Joelle Hoverson’s book, you might be surprised to see the quilt laid out and covering so much of a queen-sized bed. You might also be surprised to see it made up of seven stripes instead of five.

Why seven stripes? No numerology here. I used them because I had them.

Here’s what happened: I cut the fabrics as I was instructed to do. The first phase of this involved folding a long cut of quilter’s cotton lengthwise and cutting into four strips. Those are the big strips of houndstooth you’re seeing in the photos. Then, I cut 45″ (or 42″ or whatever, the whole width of the fabric) strips from that and four other fabrics of varying widths.

Yes, I am being intentionally vague about measurements, because I’d really like for people to buy the book.

As you might imagine from the pictures, I mixed up the 45″-wide cuts, sewed them together in groups of four or five, varying widths and prints as much as possible, pressed the seams, cut them into chunks, and stacked them up to make the horizontal striped sections of the quilt.

The technique yielded a really cute combination of stripes. However, it also turned out to be way more stripe-age than I needed. I guess if I were really picky about fabric position, I’d have been happy with so much to work with, but I can’t imagine making a randomized, strippy picnic blanket is really a fun activity for the overly picky.

Plus, there was the fact that I was only about to use two of the long houndstooth pieces I cut. To be fair, the instructions do call for the remaining long cuts to be used as binding, but I determined the print was too busy for that, and used a dark brown Kona cotton with some of the leftover striped bits integrated in. So if you end up “going big” on this quilt like I did, make sure you have enough of something
to use for binding.

So, after a bit of head-scratching, I determined I didn’t have another use for the stripes I’d made, and added another column of those, as well as an extra houndstooth strip. My finished quilt is somewhere around 81″ square - small for my bed, but could make a good guest quilt, or fit a twin that sits high off the floor.

If I made this quilt again - and I may very well do so - I’d either proceed with the modifications I’ve just detailed (might as well go big if you can do it without any extra effort!) or make the original eliminate a few of the widest 45″ cuts. I’m sure there are almost infinite ways to make this project less of a yardage-eater, but that might involve more math than I generally feel like doing.

accessories2

Originally uploaded by sewingstars

I’m so excited to have gotten into Craftland for 2008! The pic above shows some of the items I sent - don’t they look happy to be hanging out in Providence?

In all seriousness, I think it’s time for my annual, “I’ll never be able to make enough holiday product this year!” freak-out, so you’ll have to excuse me while I get to that.

It’s Quilt Monday on a Tuesday, y’all - the very best kind!

I know three straight days of work sort flies in the face of the whole Labor Day concept, but, sometimes, it’s the getting up and getting out, the preparing a face to meet the faces that you meet that’s the real effort.

Between Saturday morning and Monday night, I sewed 5 aprons, cut out 12 more, cut and sewed two quilt tops, finished tying the Summer Breeze quilt, and machine quilted a top I made something like three years ago. I still managed to host a Civ 4 marathon, have dinner with neighbors, and read half a book on the Carter Family.

I’m not bragging so much as listing the virtues of a 72-hour life drop-out. If you want to get stuff done, do nothing.

And now, show and tell:

The Summer Breeze Quilt, dropped carelessly on the floor to reveal the vintage sheet I used for the back. I’m getting so much more joy (is that possible???) out of working on quilts when I use these vintage sheets. I don’t know if it’s the extra shot of color, or just the sense of history I feel when I look at the old-fashioned prints. The sense of belonging in my home is already palpable, like it’s been around for 10 years, and not just a month. And I haven’t even bound this guy! Binding, I’m afraid, will have to be put off until the weather cools. Or until I can’t wait any longer. So either autumn, or, like, tonight.

From Summer Breeze - which I had to finish first, or risk working *gasp* out of season - I moved on to playing around with some of my new fabrics. I have a TON of fabric right now, and while I’d love to get in on the “destash” movement everyone is talking about, I paid for this, and, darn it all, I’m gonna make product with it. I decided to put together a couple of simple smaller quilts, which, at about 42 inches square, actually make a fairly handy picnic blanket. We’ve been taking this throw to the park and beach, and it’s perfect for two.

I have ideas for a veritable plethora of these in mind. They are simple to sew, which means I can enlist the elves to help me make some for Christmas gifts, and they aren’t the yardage piglets that a lot of quilts are, which means I can incorporate lots of fun things from my stash without buying anything beyond batting. (And maybe some binding fabric, because I’m so picky about scale, and color, and making a nice, neat frame for the whole thing….)

But for now, I have two tops. Saturday’s:

(Why, oh why, did I fold it before taking a pic??? Close-up of fabrics here.)

and Sunday’s:

(Notice that the carpet is absolutely filthy with scraps and thread ends. Mark of a weekend well spent.)

Being on the roll that I was, I seriously considered putting together another top on Monday, to make it a long weekend trifecta. Good idea, but I think I’ll save it for another long weekend. (Or even do two a weekend till my head explodes!) But I had an itch to do some machine quilting, preferably on a quilt I was free to completely wreck. My machine quilting can use a little practice. And so I practiced.

I really practiced quite a lot.

This is yet another summery quilt that I just wanted to be done with. I made the top in about an hour in something like the summer of ‘05, and it’s amazing how letting a project languish like that just knocks it right off your to-do list.

Until, suddenly, you’re sending your husband to the hardware store for the widest roll of masking tape they have, because you cannot possibly put off the basting for the ten minutes it will take to walk to Ace yourself.

Good times.

Good, good times.

By Amanda Jean. Don’t you just want to flop onto it, and stay there forever?

To be fair, I’ve been wanting one since Amanda Jean pointed to an earlier, pinker version, and while I love pink to death, seeing the vintage sheet pieces next to another color only makes me covet it more.

Like all things we really want, this one is ever-so-slightly out of my reach. I’ve been collecting vintage sheets to use as quilt backings for a little while, so using the leftovers in patchwork is certainly in my future. But waiting till I have the scraps? Torture. Waiting to amass a big enough stack? Not to mention a well-coordinated stack? Expensive torture.

This seems to be a real theme for me this week - lots of ideas, but not the fabric to execute them. I’ve been dreaming of putting together a Jacob’s Ladder in bright greens and yellows, but all my muslin’s earmarked, so I’m waiting on a shipment. I noticed a group of fabrics I absolutely MUST turn into the Summer Breeze Quilt from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts, but not until I have some brown houndstooth to tie it all together.

(Thankfully, Helen’s got some, so it’s just a matter of picking that up. Still, waiting is waiting. Harumph.)

All this seems to suggest that I haven’t been working on much. Not so. But it’s so much more fun to write about what I’m dreaming about doing, as opposed to what I’m actually doing….

This has been long overdue. After working 7 days a week for almost a month, I had today off. So here’s what I finished today:

- Blocks for the seeing stars quilt-along. I finished the first about a week ago, the second last night, and the third today, so I’m all caught up.

I almost tore block one apart and replaced the center triangles with red, so that each block would be two-toned. But I decided to wait, as I’m not sure that’s necessary. That’s the frustrating aspect of designing as I go - planning ahead isn’t really an option. Thankfully, Amanda Jean really knows what she’s doing, so this quilt-along doesn’t have many frustrating aspects at all.

I’m also proud to announce that I’m done with my cute skirt.

Man, this pattern was easy. I think the flat-felled seams took longer than everything else, put together. Not that the pattern mandated flat-felled seams. I just think they look awesome.

There was definitely a time, back when I was doing a lot of costumes for plays, when I was tempted to rush through garments in order to wear them as soon as possible. I’m happy to report that I’m over that - I mean, if I’m going to put the time into making myself something to wear, I might as well put the extra effort into making it really special. Hence the fancy seams and the bias tape around the hem, which were totally worth the effort. I can’t wait to make another version of this skirt.

And, finally, one of the perks of working in a craft room that is essentially an irredeemable trash pit is occasionally finding some near-finished gem and finishing it off then and there. I was looking for some sashing fabric for a few quilt blocks when I ran across this cheep cheep I had stitched on a square of cotton, like, three and half years ago.

Why the heck did I not finish it then? The hemming was such a minor task compared to cross-stitching a video game character, and plucking out the waste canvas. So I made short work of turning it into a handkerchief, which matches my new skirt.

I don’t want a summer cold, but at least now I’m prepared.