Proof

IMG_1807.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

That I don't feel well tonight. And no, not because I've not sewn the last 4 strips of blocks to the Fandango top. The wrinkles and bunched fabric are proof that my normally good dog has been sleeping on the couch. She only does this when I'm sick so house rules no longer apply.

I thought it was just a cough but now I'm starting to worry.

Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee

Sew Fresh Fabrics Bee, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Hooray, my package of scraps for the Sew Fresh Fabrics Scrap Bee arrived today and I love all the fabrics! These are not little scraps either, I'll have no problem making a 12.5 inch block.

My living room

IMG_1787.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Yes, Fandango is taking over my house this week. Here is my living room floor this morning. I'm trying to decide whether this should be 81 x 81 or 72 x 90.

And what should I do with the 4 (or 3) extra blocks. I'll have flannel on the back, of course.

My New Desk

My New Desk, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Relatively little of my planned sewing got done today because I decided to trek up the coast to pick up a new desk. Just finished putting it all together. The glass top seemed like the perfect place to add some of the extra strips of Fandango. Of course, I had to include the cutest baby picture ever. If that picture can't cheer you up then nothing can.

No more organizing for today though. I am le tired.  Maybe I will manage to show my chemistry experiments later this week.  I will have printable labels, I will!

Saturday Stash #4

Orange and Gold Mum, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

On one of my birthdays way back when, I bought this fabric at a little shop in Oceanside (closed now). I wasn't sure what pattern to use so I held on to it. And found it some friends, more friends than it needs probably. I still like them all and still would like to make me a quilt out of them but I'm sorta burnt out on this style fabric after making the bento box (link to be magically inserted later when I actually write the post from last year) and then using up the bits on this quilt, so this quick view might be the only time they are seen this year. Who knows? I might find the perfect pattern that screams for an orange mum with shiny gold outlines. Mmmmm, shiny.

Orange and Gold Mum Friends, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

The top is done and only 5 inches wider and 10 inches longer than I expected it to be. Maybe a little large for a baby quilt but she'll grow. I did manage to complete the top with only fabrics I already had on hand. So even though I had a resolution exception to buy any fabrics needed for this quilt, I only had to pick up some green and white flannel for the back. In fact, I think the border was originally purchased for the first baby quilt I made. Hmmm, that one also ended up way larger than expected.   Although why did I buy 2 yards of fabric for an applique project?

I've got the twin size ticker tape on the frame right now so I won't be able to quilt this until the last 30 or so inches is done on that. Let's see if I can talk myself into working on it this weekend. I know I'm going to like it again once it's off the frame but right now I just find it tedious. Plus it doesn't warm up out in that room very quickly.

Here's a little closer picture of the feathery fabric I fussy cut for the little border.

Chain Reaction, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

And for those keeping track of my craziness, yes, I did consider alphabetizing the 4 center prints but managed to mostly talk myself out of it.

Butterfly Clutch

Butterfly Clutch, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I did remember to try out the tricks I learned making the first clutch so made different mistakes on the second zippered pouch. It turned out well enough and has been sent off to a friend in need of a little bit of cheer.

Saturday Stash #3

Last Order of 2010, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Today's stash is the last order I placed in 2010. It took forever to get here. Forever. This is my first and last order from eQuilter.com, their site is nice and they have a million fabrics, most of these were on sale. A lot on sale actually. And it wasn't the waiting for the order that I minded. They did respond to my email saying they would be late with the order since their clearance sale went much better than expected.

But here's the thing, I ordered two yards of the orange swirly flannel in the back. And they emailed that they didn't have it in one continuous cut. So they gave me the option of paying for an extra 12 inches. I chose what I thought was the option of 2 yards in 1 yard increments. Nope, they sent me an 18 inch piece and cut 12 inches off the 1 yard 30 inch piece. Surely, this is an error and they'll make it right? Nope, not even a real nice apology. Here's the thing, the shipping was sooooo late (and not that cheap) that a little give in the fabric cuts would have made me shrug and say "well, these things happen, no big deal". But without the customer service, it's just not worth shopping with them again. And I can be quite successful in the not shopping at places again, just ask Starbucks and Target.

Fandango Clutch

Fandango Clutch, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

It's my first finish of the New Year! It's a little gathered clutch from this tutorial. While I did struggle with it (and not just whether to cut up my Kate Spain Fandango yardage), it turned out really well. Also for once I took notes of the dumb things I did in error so I can skip them next time.

It's not really clear in the picture but the front is gathered. One of the things I'll try next time is to cut the front piece a little bigger (6 x 15) and then once it's gathered down I'll trim to the 5.5 x 9 side. Or forget entirely until I'm trying to link back to this post. One of the three.

The lining and the front dots are from a scrap bundle that I bought up in Northern California because one of the fabrics had colors that my sister was considering for her wedding. For the inside I pieced a couple of the strips together since I figured it would be mostly covered by the card holder and divider. It really isn't noticeable and I'm patting myself on the back for using the fabric I have instead of going out for more.

Also, I only had a navy blue zipper so I'm pretending that I used that color on purpose for some, um, pop? Contrast? Dorky homemade look? It's way more noticeable in the picture than in real life.

Fandango Clutch, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

A Reminder

IMG_3513, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

No seriously, when I was looking back for some pictures for one of last year's quilts, I found this picture. That's right, people. I needed about 6 purple batiks and this is what ended up coming home with it. And then some of the purples were fighting so I had to go find new friends for them anyway.

Fabric can be so mean.

It's Tough but I Can Do It

Arabella Diamonds, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Really I can do it. I've got the majority of the blocks for this quilt finished. I have the border, binding and backing fabrics. What I don't have is enough of the Kona Avocado to finish the rest of the blocks. So I've added that to my list of fabric to buy when my resolution is complete. I can do it. Look, I already packed up the whole project so that it can't taunt me. I'll move it to the deep freeze tonight and go on to another project. It's not like I don't have plenty of projects to keep me occupied for the next 49 days (but who's counting?), right?

Moving to the Deep Freeze, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Mobile Ironing Board

Small Ironing Board, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Thanks to a friend of mine who cut a big old shelf in half-ish today, I've just designed my own mobile ironing board. Good for little fiddly bits and avoiding the cold sewing room as much as possible. Because I still do have to choose only two options of light, iron and heat out there.

Basically what I did was take the other half of the piece of wood pictured at the top and cover it with 3 layers of scrap batting from the bins o' batting that are begging to be used. For the bottom two layers I used multiple pieces of whatever would fit. The top layer I did use a solid piece to keep it a little smoother. Then I cut a piece of flannel about 4 inches longer than the wood on each side and stretched it around to the back. I used wire nails to attach the flannel because they were the right length to not stick through the front of the board. It may have been easier to do this step with a staple gun but for me that involved walking over a few blocks to borrow one. And it's cold outside. Ok, maybe it's 53F outside but I have short pants on.

Now I can iron inside the house without worrying that my dog is going to edge me out from the prime spot in front of the heater. You know, when I go to put long pants on.

Saturday Stash #2

Yellow Delicious, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I'm still working on another project but as a reminder to myself that I have plenty of fabric to play with, I went out to look at my fabric shelves. I started with this delightfully swirly and sunshine-y fabric and it took me just a few minutes to pull 5 other fabrics that wanted to become it's new BFFF*.

I let them hang out for a little while but they've all gone back to join their regular shelves now.  Maybe they can be pen pals.

Yellow Delicious, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

In other happy fabric news, the green that I had for the modern diamonds project (posted as the hmmmm previously) was getting pushed around by the prints so I replaced it with a darker green that could hold it's own. Doesn't sound happy so far, right? Well, I tossed it near the stack of other fabrics looking for a bit o' green and it gets along famously. I think I'm at the pattern picking step for the baby quilt mentioned in Saturday Stash #1.


* That's Best Fabric Friends Forever.

Hmmmmm and Hooray

Hmmmmm, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

That's not quite right. Unless there's some sort of magic to occur later. But I think that I've just used the small corner from the wrong block. I'll try again later.

In other great news, I was lucky enough to join in on my first bee. I got the email from Sew Fresh Fabrics and will have a box of scraps in the mail by the end of January with a block to be completed and resent by end of February. HOORAY! It's to benefit Project Linus.

Sea Glass

IMG_1666.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I picked up a book called Scrap-Basket Surprises by Kim Brackett a few months ago and decided to dive into my blue and green scraps to try one of her patterns. I need about 80 little blocks total but just in the bits of fabric that caught my eye on the first pass through the scraps, I've already completed 22 with 17 more partially cut. I'm not sure if they'll all stay in there as one of the dots looks a little bright in this picture. However, I'm kicking around a few other ideas for the year and have on my Excel list of quilts for the year a quilt I'm calling Orphanage for Blocks. And it just so happens that I know a few people involved with orphanages for children so I think that's a good option for such a quilt.

In other news, I saw a pattern I loved on one of the blogs that I stalk and found out it's from a book called Livin' Large. Which found it's way to my house and it turns out I liked most of the patterns in it. Sweet, I usually only like a quilt or two in a book so typically wouldn't buy them. I did some fabric shuffling and am making the pattern Modern Diamonds with a fabric line called Arabella by Pat Sloan. Here's the starting pile.

IMG_1666.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

And check out this super diamond pattern flannel. In my team* color no less!

IMG_1666.JPG, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

I'm setting aside the Sea Glass and moving on to this quilt. But hey, it only makes sense as the greens I'm using in this one might tone down the blue. Right?

*I don't really have a team that wears orange but were I to start a team, our uniforms would be orange. That's from trying to pick people out of crowds of runners where everyone was wearing blue, black, purple or green. Trust me, orange stands out.

Saturday Stash #1

Saturday Stash #1, originally uploaded by shanleytulip.

Happy New Year!

Here's the first grouping of fabrics for the new year. And also the first exception to one of my resolutions. First, I'd like to say it's a really hard resolution and I know this because I like to test my resolutions between Thanksgiving and Christmas to see if I really want to keep them. So effective today I will not be purchasing fabric for 2 solid months*. With the sole exception of anything that is needed for this baby quilt I'm making on my sister's behalf for one of the funniest, nicest, best Facebook updaters we know. She picked out the 3 fat quarters and I'm going to come up with a pattern of some sort. I will try to add in only fabrics from the neatly stacked, yet still very full cabinets I already have. But in an emergency, I reserve the right to buy the perfect shade of green to make the apples and zoo animals get along.

Other than that, if I am in the middle of a project and run out of fabric, I will set it aside and work on something else. Probably. I do have plenty to work on.



*Yes, purposely picked a short month in which I have a birthday which may trick people into sending me Kate Spain Central Park stuff.