Going Coastal Christmas

The giant quilt I made for my brother's family is getting lots of use already. There seems to be some confusion on sharing but these two seem to have come to an understanding.
Thanks to my mom, the binding was on Christmas Eve morning and we even had time to wash and dry just in time for present opening. Christmas was saved (actually saved about 42 times, so that's nice).
The pattern is a modified version of a pattern by Stitched in Color with a few extra rows at the bottom since I found it to be really wide but not long enough.  Easy peasy to adjust though.






I still really love that fabric and have a plan for another quilt here soon.

P.S. This was finished quilt number 17 for 2011.  I am a bit behind on blogging still though.

Finally Something New

On my design wall. It's the same project that's been up there since Sept but at least I can see progress.



I've had a bit of an adjustment to the light in my sewing space but at least my cell phone pictures aren't so yellow.

Ready to Go!

Ready to Go!, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

The holiday piles have been cleared. Well out of the sewing space anyway, I'm easing in to the cleaning of the house plan.

Over Christmas I did get a few requests for quilt repairs/lengthening from nephews so plans are in the works for those as well.

Sunday Morning

I don't cut Minkee in the house.

Starting at the Last Minute

Hopefully finishing before the last second.

I'm working on a new gift and needed a bit of muslin. Here's my go to fabric that use instead.



I have a ton of it and I use it to test ideas or line things but I'm afraid that as soon as its gone, I'll think of the perfect project that needs a bunch.

It's some of my only per washed fabric because we used it as table cloths for a 3 themed birthday years ago.

One of the Three

This could be pure genius or the start of a disaster. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Quick Flannel Pillowcases

I whipped up two quick wintery flannel pillowcases today after completely rethreading the serger. It's important to whip up something after spending so much time on that chore. Otherwise what sticks in your head is that the serger is persnickety. Which it is but three super fast seams later, these cute kits (which showed up in a package today from Above All Fabrics closing sale) are now ready for Christmas.









P.S. also not on my list.

Wrapping Testing

Now that Festivus is over, I'm trying out a bag pattern to use as wrapping this Christmas. So far the sizing is odd but they are cute. I'm thinking of taking them to the store and whatever fits into them is the gift.

Checking my List

And doing things not on the list but I'll add them later just to check them off. It's very productive that way.



A few pieces of Peacock Lane were delivered to my house this week and so I read a few tutorials and the made up a pattern. It's a half apron which is double sided with some Verna and the super long tie is something by Patty Young. It all just seemed to go well together and if I was smart, could have gone together in one evening. But I'm not so it took two and a million pins. I do have a plan to make it easier though. That will likely take three evenings though because I'll sew something together really wrong.

Work Gets in the Way

I've had big plans for this week but with it being dark when I get home, it's not gone so well. Work is super busy since we're recruiting for someone to boss me around right now. I did manage to start and finish two of these -




from a yard of voile Joel Dewberry Heirloom. I stayed up way too late the first night and finished a scarf which I enjoyed for a day and a half. Then I gave it to someone at work and made a new one. I serged two pieces together and then top stitched around the edge. I think I'd like it to be a little longer but love the colors and the voile to really soft.

Location:Work Gets in the Way

Triangle Quilt, Triangle Quilt

It was a dark and stormy morning and  by that I mean it was raining lightly and there was no way I was going to leave the house.  It was too much fun staying home and being blamed for the rain by Matilda.

So I started with this Minkee I got on sale recently -

to this initial grouping (ignore the stacks in the back) - 

to some really bad math.  I need 99 triangles, no wait, I need 396.  Damn it, I'll just lay them out.  Oh, I need 180.  Ok, well here's the first batch -



and here they all are with a dog that is still irritated I'm spraying her with water every time she wants to go outside -




And voila, the next morning, the sun is back and the triangles are attached.  I did consider renaming the quilt from "Triangle Quilt, Triangle Quilt, Doing the Things a Triangle Can" to "What's the Point" but it's a baby quilt and everyone knows that babies don't mind mismatched points.



And look a couple do match up just to be show offs.




The nice thing is that almost everything was scraps.  I had a scrap bag of oranges, yellows, reds and pinks.   Some of them were big enough for cutting a triangle but some were not so I pieced them and then cut the triangles.  Scrappy, random and quickish.  Not too shabby for a rainy Saturday.

Minkee Back # 2

This is going to be a heavy quilt.





But the first one worked out really well so I'm diving in on a 96 x 84 inch quilt.

Anyone want to let me cut it at your house?



Update: my mom kindly offered the garage based on the fact it's my Dad's area so she won't mind the fuzz.

Japanese Fabrics

A long, long time ago, I worked with some Japanese medical students who were visiting San Diego for the summer. It was a really interesting project for NASA involving twins and vacuum chambers and other fun stuff. The advisor that was out with the students injured his leg so I was pressed into chauffeuring service. It was a really fun summer and they were great. My oldest nephew referred to them as his Japanese doctors. They were fascinated with him (2-3 year old at the time) and his curly blond hair. At the end of the summer they gave everyone thank you gifts for hosting. Back in those days I didn't sew at all but I just came across some of the fabrics they gave me.





Fun little bits, aren't they?

Location:Japanese Fabrics

Prepping for Guests

1, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I'm having a houseful of guests this weekend and what better way to prep than to fold fabric? My brother sent me a new bunch of comic book boards this week. Something to do with his concern over me opening up the comic books I have here for him.

I suppose some people actually make sure there is food in the house for guests but I'm not that crazy. I won't get a lot (any) sewing done this weekend but at least I know there are enough quilts to cover everyone. Probably.

Ready for Hand Stitching

I ended up pebble quilting this one. Sometimes even when I start with a plan on how I'm going to quilt, it just doesn't happen. I was going to straight line quilt this but when the needle was threaded it called out for circles.



I snapped this picture in the morning after I finished trimming it outside. Since my friends are all mean and wouldn't agree to me cutting minkee at their houses. Something about aqua blue fuzz everywhere.

Thanks to Susan, it's already labeled with our fancy San Diego Modern Quilt Guild logo.

Exquisite Beauty

I finished a quilt for my bed this week.  

 I used two layer cakes of Kate Spain's Fandango for a 72 x 90 quilt for my bed.  You can click on the labels section on the left of this site to see some of the progress pictures.

Please ignore the crumpliness of it, there's three other quilts and a down comforter under it.

Ok, now for the story of the label.  One of our favorite authors as kids was Bill Peet.  So when my sister had kids, I tracked down some of his books.  The one we read all the time is titled No Such Things.  Everyone in the family was assigned an animal from the book.  My mom is a blue-snouted Twump, the middle nephew is a pie-faced Pazeek, one sister is aspooky-tailed Tizzy while the other is a great Gullagaloop.  I lucked out with the cover creature, the fancy Fandango.  So when I found out that Kate Spain's new line (new at the time anyway) was called Fandango, I knew I had to make a quilt for me out of it.  I printed up the poem and the picture at Spoonflower for a label.   Please ignore the part that says I made this in Sept 10, that's when I thought I would finish it.

I'm linking up with the Blogger's Quilt Festival (check out tons of other quilts, I find a lot of new blogs to follow here) and Finish it Up Fridays (hosted by one of the nicest bloggers ever).  This is my 13th finished quilt this year, yay!

Steam A Seam Lite

If you know where I live, please don't buy Steam A Seam. Ever again. I just found a HUGE box. At the rate I'm using it (on a label tonight) it will take me approximately 37 gazillion years to use it up.

Who wants to appliqué something?

Weekend Sewing

I essentially stayed home on Saturday and puttered around the house. I did do a bit of sewing and sorting as well. I got a few labels on and I'll show those quilts in a bit. I finally got the rest of the strip sets together and then cut out all of the triangles for the Origins quilt I started at a guild meeting back in May.



The blocks are all ready to go now and after consultation with my BFF today, the blocks won't be mixed up. There are a million sets though so I may end up making one mixed and one not. We'll see.

Today I went to sew at my friend's house and mainly worked on hand stitching a binding. The kid agreed to take pictures for us but I was reading a magazine at the time so was required to make the picture more interesting. Don't worry, no quilts were harmed in the process.


And later we played a rousing game of Guess What I'm Drawing Without Looking at the iPad.



Nathan won. Partially because of the ship above and partially because we only guessed he would draw bikes. It makes sense if you know him, I have most of the kids we know convinced the man has no furniture in his house, only bikes. I test-drove writing a blog with a new iPad app and liked it enough to buy the app (psst, Mom - don't tell Dad :P). I did leave myself logged in over there which means, I can blame any wacky posts on her FOREVER.

Oddly, I did not get the binding finished yet.

iPad cases

iPad cases, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

And no, I don't need to have costume changes for my iPad and I don't have 3 of them. One was made after reading a Moda Bake Shop tutorial, the middle one was made by FOLLOWING the tutorial. I'll put on the button tonight, as it's a gift for someone celebrating a birthday tomorrow. The top one was made just this week using this Fresh Lemons tutorial as a going away gift for a coworker. Ok, if I admit it all, it's the 2nd one I made with that tutorial. I just botched the first one so much that I started over again. The night before I needed to give it away. The zippers are supposed to be invisible but I'm settling for toothless. The little pocket is really handy for cords or what not.

This is shaping up to be a finishing sort of weekend and I managed this post just in time to link up with crazy mom quilts!

NICU quilt and a little experiment

photo.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I'm testing block sizes for a little quilt for the NICU. My inspiration was this one but I've got to decide between the sizes. It should be quick, easy and maybe adorable.

Now for the experimenting. San Diego is really letting us down in the way of flannels lately and I like the back of a quilt to be snuggly. So I used a coupon to get some aqua minkee on Sunday (egged on by SBoIC). I'm going to pit the quilting frame against the minkee and see who wins. If they turn out to be best friends, I'm going to need stock in minkee. Or just stocks of minkee. Of course, that stuff sheds like mad so all my quilt sizes will have to be based on me never cutting it myself.

A Little Bit of Progress

tag.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I got way more than this project moving this weekend but here's a peek at my brilliance. That's right, I don't want to forget what fabric I used on the backing so I stitched that sticker right on in. Nothing says Christmas like forgetting to take the tag off :)

Now to decide on the binding. . . .

tag.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

Grand Bazaar Layout

Grand Bazaar Layout, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

Since I actually have something on a design wall on Monday, why not link up?

See more at http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/09/26/design-wall-monday-september-26-2011/

Intarsia Hexagon

Intarsia Hexagon, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I had a great coupon today for the fabric store and had to go use it. With my wallet this time. I stopped in after work Thursday and got some red fabric I needed/wanted for a set of presents that I'm working on. Unfortunately I didn't actually leave the house with my wallet on Thursday. So they kindly put it aside and I went back to collect it this morning.

I used my coupon, picked up a triangle ruler and pulled out some yellow fabric scraps to try it. I didn't think it through when I decided to sew them all together and had to pull out my mad intarsia sewing skills.

Now, most people might call these y seams or inset seams or to be avoided at all cost seams. However, my mom is an excellent knitter and can do fancy intarsia knitting. I've no idea what that actually is so I call all fancy knitting intarsia. This is a fancy seam so I have also renamed it intarsia.

I know, I barely make sense to myself.

And yes that is my puppy napping on my lap, it helps her make sure that I don't jump up and run out of the house without her. She has a rough life.

I've no idea what I'll do with this little bit of sunshine but I'm sure something will come up.

The New Math

Start of Wonky Star, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I learned some new math recently.

One (1) panicky dog who needs to alert me to danger five times in the middle of the night. She needed to protect us from immediate danger but not without me going out back with her. I'm pretty sure the danger was a skunk and some wind.

Add eight (8) white squares and nine (9) scraps picked out in the wee hours of the morning.

Multiply by one (1) super full glass of wine and it equals one more wonky star block for the guild donation quilt.

Start of Wonky Star, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

One more and we'll have enough squares for a blanket.

Lemon Squares Bound

Lemon Squares Bound, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I had a looooong day of jury duty today and decided to fully dork out and take a quilt with me to bind. I finished up the Lemon Squares quilt. I've just got to dig up the label from somewhere around here. If I can trick someone into holding up for me this weekend, I'll post a full picture soon.

Hmm, that seems to be a common thread on posts lately. It might be time to dig out my pulleys too and set up a photo spot. Maybe on my new front porch, that should fancy up the neighborhood.

You can kinda see in this picture that I decided to try pebbling in the white spaces. On the yellow squares I stitched in some lemons. Cause I take quilt names literally.

Wedding Quilts

Wedding Quilts, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

It's not a closeup but here are all 6 quilts that I made for my sister's wedding. They are made from Kona solids and I just pieced things randomly. They are big, about 72 x 90 or so each.

They came in handy because it was quite cold at the reception.

Hopefully I'll get some closeups at some point. Since I sent them out to the rest of my family to be bound, I never took any final pictures of these quilts.

Back to It

Back to It, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I think I was planning on making a quilt of 20 blocks but particularly after having the Going Coastal Tiles up yesterday, this seems quite small. I guess it depends on how tired I get of making the flying geese. This would be the pieces of just over half of the blocks. I've quit putting the whole block together because I think I'll need to swap those pieces around to balance the quilt as well.

In other news, I've settled on a plain gray flannel for the back of my Sunkissed quilt. It's either that or risk never finding flannel of the right color.

Going Coastal

IMG_3116.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I'm a little under the weather this weekend still (think 2 hour nap for every two hours upright) but this pattern has gone together really quickly. If you use this pattern, I recommend putting together a little fabric map like my last post, it was really helpful in keeping track. The blocks are large so it was easier not to put them up on the design wall. I'm as far as I can go without the last fabric I need. It's on order though so after my next nap, I'll pack it up and move on to something else. It's not like I don't have a few other projects in the works, right?

I love the dark gray as the grout for these tiles and may use it as the binding as well.

IMG_3116.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

Back

Back, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

The wedding was a success and I'm back home again. It rained this morning and then got muggy, still and hot but I started a plan for a new quilt. It's using a pattern from Stitched in Color and I decided to try the layout with small scraps since I don't have all the fabric and they are good sized squares.

If I can track down pictures of the wedding quilts, I'll post those as well.

Still Thinking about the blue

Still Thinking about the blue, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I've started the Grand Bazaar quilt for me and I'm trying out a light blue (Kona Bahama Blue) for the sashing bits. I had intended to use the pomegrante as corner stones but maybe the orange would work better.

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the last wedding quilting today and then have a couple of more blocks ready for the guild meeting tomorrow. I'll be able to get some feedback there!

Storage

photo 2.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

I've just moved into a house with a tiny bathroom, one tiny bathroom. And while I have considered the option of shaving my head so I don't need so many products, I've decided to try alternative plans first.

This one is an underbed rolling box with some organizing bins from Ikea. I served up a prototype cover and attached it with magnets. If it works out, I may remake it in a heavier fabric and find a more permanent way to attach it.

No dogs were harassed in the making of this project.

It's simple but nice to get something off my to do list. Although now that the serger is out, I feel like I should be serging a thousand other things too. But it's back to trying to move in around here for me.

photo 2.JPG, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

Oh and I finally finished the binding on the ticker tape, now just a few month's left on the trimming.

Planning her Escape

IMG_3003, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.

Sometimes it's hard being a dog. Especially a dog in my house. I used a couple scraps from a holiday pack I got ages ago to make a kid's apron. It is a straight forward pattern but I first cut the blue snowmen upside down and didn't have enough to recut it, so I modified things and it pretty much worked out.

I also ended up piecing the lining fabric since I didn't have any chunks large enough. The neck strap has elastic in it which worked well for dressing my model.

I couldn't stop laughing long enough to get a good picture of Matilda doing a meerkat stance but still, it cracks me up.

Homemaker Matilda, a photo by shanleytulip on Flickr.