Adelaide Lemonade

A Quilt Finally

I've had a bunch of quilt tops ready to be quilted for quite some time.  Most of them have been sitting around for almost a year, and one is almost two years old.  I like the actual quilting - well mostly - and don't really mind the binding, but I hate crawling around on the floor and basting.  

Except for a few pillows, I've always used safety pins, but a friend finally convinced me to try out the basting spray.  I had visions of the quilt, batting, and back bunching up and sticking together all over the place.  I could just imagine all the layers being stuck to me with me going in circles to try to detach it like a dog chasing it's tail.  I even had visions of myself and/or the quilt being hopelessly stuck to the floor.

But I took it easy with the spray, and it actually went pretty well.  I laid everything out on the floor, so there was still a fair bit of crawling around.  My friend recommended laying everything out on a table, but I was too worried about getting sticky stuff all over my table.  I have one of those plastic-y Home Depot ones in my basement.  Maybe I'll dig that out and try it next time.

It wasn't a very fancy quilt or even a very big quilt, but I wanted to make it simple to show off the cute little Aneela Hooey designs.  I had managed to snag a charm pack before the yardage came out of her first collection.

I ended up quilting it simply, too.  I just machine-stitched my sewing machine foot width away from each seam.  I ended up going back and forth between my walking foot and my regular foot.  I've used my walking foot in the past, and it really hasn't done anything for me.  There are a few places where I ended up with a pucker in the fabric (frustration!), and I almost think the walking foot made that worse.  I plan to use the same quilting for my Heather Ross quilt, so I hope I can figure this out before then.

In hindsight, the solid blue binding wasn't the best idea.  There are some squares of the same blue in the quilt which, afterwards, I remembered placing strategically next to the non-blue squares, so it wouldn't clash with the other blues that weren't similar enough or contrast-y enough.  Oh well, it's such a light blue that I think you don't really notice the binding that much and can just focus on the quilt.

This time I did try machine binding.  I used this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts, and it worked out great.  It takes me forever to hand bind a quilt - even a small one.  This was so much faster and still looks very nice.

I don't know if it was the simple quilting or the all-cotton batting that I used, but I love the softness and drapy-ness of this quilt.  The other ones that I've made and quilted with all-over stippling have seemed much more stiff.

I ended up giving this quilt to my mother for her birthday.  I know the Aneela Hooey fabric is probably considered a juvenile print, and the colors in the quilt are kind of baby-ish, but my mom had said she liked the colors when she saw the quilt top months ago.  She seemed to like it.

Anyway, it was a good quilting experience.  I might just get inspired enough, brave enough to do another one.

Something Other than Clothes

I haven't sewn a stitch clothes-wise since KCWC.  I have to admit, it's driving me a bit crazy.  Was it only 3 weeks ago?  I guess it's not so bad then.  

The last two weekends have been busy.  The first one, I got to spend the weekend with 3 of my good, good friends from college.  Then last weekend, of course, was Mother's Day. (I finally did get some sewing in that day - because it should be about doing whatever I want, right?).  Unfortunately, as often happens, my husband's birthday fell on the same day.  Neither of us think it's very fair to have to share.  

Then, this weekend coming up, hopefully, has some sailing in store.  And I'm all packed up to visit my mother tonight for her birthday.  And I have book club tomorrow night.  All fun stuff, but Addie is running out of clothes!  Just kidding!  She is so NOT running out of clothes, but I still have two things already cut out to finish up, and I just really like sewing clothes.  If I didn't know what was good for me, I might just lock myself in my sewing room indefinitely.  Hopefully, Memorial Day weekend brings some nice, uninterrupted sewing time.

I have been sewing a few things here and there.  Ever since I saw this post, I've been wanting to sew this bag.  I had a thought to make one for each of my friends that I got together with the weekend before last.  Then I had a thought to make one for my mom and sister for Mother's Day, but my sewing can't seem to keep up with my thoughts, and I only managed to make one which I donated to my husband when he needed a gift for his mother.

It's a great pattern, and I love the finished product.  I will definitely make it again.  Maybe I'll whip up a batch with my new Denyse Schmidt fabric.  (Like I said - production not necessarily keeping up with ideas.)

Hope you had a great Mother's Day!

Cloth Napkins

It feels a bit like cheating on my Fabric Challenge, but I made some cloth napkins this weekend with two different fabrics from my stash.

It feels like cheating because it was so easy and fast compared to sewing clothes and because it used up a lot of fabric fast.

BUT, I did buy that fabric with cloth napkins in mind.

When I was folding up my prewashed fat quarters for my Heather Ross Far Far Away quilt (which I really will make one of these days), I thought the linen cotton blend seemed like such a nice weight for cloth napkins.

I collected up a bit more FFA for this purpose, but then I decided I might want to use that to make a bigger quilt, so I ended up buying some Echino.  Is that fabric buying rationalization at it's best, or what?  (Don't worry this all happened before I started my challenge.)

I've made napkins before where I basically sewed two fat quarters together, but since that uses twice as much fabric, I decided to try out mitered corners.  A quick Google search brought up several tutorials.  I ended up using this one from Prudent Baby which I highly recommend.

I did use one of the fat quarters from my FFA stash for my first attempt.  I'm not really crazy about the girl with horses print.  Even if I liked it, it didn't seem to quite fit in with Sleeping Beauty anyway.  I squared off the fat quarter and ended up with something like 18" x 18".  I used the 1/2" and 1" fold over measurements from the Prudent Baby tutorial.  It's a bit small for my taste, but definitely works.  (Oops.  It's the one chopped off in the photo.)

For the next attempt, I didn't square off the fat quarter.  I guess you'd say I rectangled it off.  It really didn't seem to make much difference that it was a rectangle.  That's the one from the eyeglass fabric.  It came out a bit bigger which is nice.

Because I just knew fat quarter napkins weren't going to be big enough for me, I bought 2/3 yard of each of the other two Echino fabrics.  The first one, the dark purple with the bikes, must not have been quite as wide as I thought, but I was able to start with 21" x 21" squares, and with the stripe-y one (which is lighter weight, too), I was able to start with 24" x 24" squares.  For both of those, I also used a 1/4" and 3/4" fold over.

We used them last night with dinner, and I'm quite happy with them.

Now if I can only keep them in good shape.  Our basement steps go right off of our kitchen.  Our washer and dryer is in our basement.  When something gets dirty in the kitchen, it usually gets thrown down the basement steps.  We live in an old house, so our basement is pretty nasty.  The floor is often wet, and I've spotted several big, nasty slugs (snails?).  I can't stand the thought of my gorgeous fabric touching that floor!  Then there's the whole issue with mildew.  I'll be the first to admit I'm not on top of the laundry situation in my house.  (Have I managed to convince you to never eat at my house?  Or at least to bring your own napkins?)

So I'm about to install a laundry basket at the top of the basement steps.  A simple solution (I hope) to a going-on 7 year problem.

Hope you have a great week.  How's your stash-busting going?  Check out my dwindling pile.

Woo hoo.  Almost halfway there.  If all goes well, I'll be cutting into the 10th tonight or tomorrow morning.

One More Japanese Sewing Tip

This is a really, really good one that I stumbled across while surfing the net last weekend in this great Japanese pattern drafting tutorial from Purl Soho (I totally want to visit there someday.  Have you been?).

I kind of skimmed the post because I thought I had the whole drafting thing pretty much figured out.  Then some Japanese characters jumped off the page at me.

Finally the mystery solved about which is the back and which is the front.  I had been limping along finding different ways to rationalize which was which.  What a simple, elegant solution!

I copied them down on a piece of paper to keep near me when I'm drafting and cutting.

It was kind of fun to try to draw the Japanese characters.  For all I know, I wrote something completely different.  Doesn't matter, it's close enough for me to tell which is which.  The last two patterns I made didn't have an obvious front and back, so this has already been a huge help.

I feel a little silly for not trying to figure this out sooner.  Oh well.  It's always good to have a challenge.

p.s. Happy Mardi Gras.  Are you giving anything up for Lent?  I've been to the dentist twice recently and they keep telling me how bad carbonation is for your teeth - even just sparkling water.  I love having a Diet Pepsi every once in a while (okay, like almost every day), and when I'm being "good" and drinking my water, I much prefer the sparkling kind.  So that's what I'm giving up for Lent - anything carbonated.  I'm even including beer.  Wish me luck.

Backpacks

 

These cute little backpacks were my big accomplishment for the weekend.  I made them from a pattern I've been coveting for a while.  When my sister mentioned that my niece wanted a backpack for her birthday, I finally committed and bought the pattern from Made by Rae.  I'm really glad I did.  It's a pretty easy, quick pattern, and I'm really happy with how the backpacks came out.  They look like something you might buy in a cute little boutique - professional - not homemade.

 

This is my two year-old, Addie modeling one of the backpacks.  I made both backpacks at the same time because I didn't think Addie would let me get away with giving one away if she didn't have one of her own.  It turns out that she loves it even more than I thought.  She's hardly taken it off, since I completed it (which makes getting her in her car seat more of a chore than usual).

So the only problem with the backpack for my niece was that I didn't finish it on time.  I guess (okay I know) I'm a procrastinator, so it seems to often happen that I'm finishing something up at the last minute then I end up being late for the party (or wherever it is I'm going) and yelling at the kids.  I decided I wasn't going to do that to us this time.  As it was, my 11 year old daughter was wonderful about helping knowing that I was trying my best to get the backpack done.  She washed Addie's face, cut her fingernails, got her dressed, and brushed her hair - all without even being asked.  Is she a saint or what?  (Note to self - go back and read this when said 11 year old is throwing an emotional, hormonal tantrum.)  I was really close, but I just didn't make it, so I threw the three to-be-sewn-together pieces in a gift bag and presented those as her gift.  She's a pretty savvy four-year-old, but she definitely thinks I'm crazy.  Oh well, I did finish it the next day and will get it in the mail for her this week.  I think she'll enjoy getting her very own mail.

In my defense, I had some pretty good excuses for being behind on things such as this family movie night sanctioned by my 8-year old son.  We ate lots of junk food and drank Shirley Temples up in my bed and miraculously didn't even spill anything.

Then my favorite somewhat local fabric store, Alewives, was having a 20% off everything sale.  I didn't really need any fabric (what halfway serious seamstress can say that with a straight face?!), didn't really have any money to spend, and I really didn't need to spend two hours that I didn't really have in the car driving there and back, but after a lot of soul-searching, I decided I just couldn't resist. Among a few other things, I finally bought the fabric for a Birdie Sling Bag.  I've had the pattern for a while, and just hadn't found the right fabric.

My final, probably most frivolous distraction was stumbling across a reference to this Pioneer Woman web site.  At first, I glanced at it quickly, checked out her "About Me" page then moved onto other things (more accurately other blogs), but something made me want to read more.  Luck would have it that she has the entire story of meeting, falling in love with, and marrying her husband on her web site.  I was immediately hooked and frittered away the whole evening reading her story instead of working on my backpacks.  There's something about it that's really appealing.  She has a great down-to-earth, self-deprecating style, and her story of marrying a rancher is just so interesting to me.  I highly recommend it.

And speaking of distractions and stories, a friend of mine just sent me this link to this writing contest where you try to write 50,000 words by the end of this month.  The idea is that you'll be in such a hurry you won't get caught up in all the things that might normally prevent you from writing a novel like plot, character development, wording, etc.  What you write might be terrible, but it might prompt you to get past whatever excuse you've been giving yourself to note write your great American (or insert your country name here) novel.  Speaking of excuses, I think I'm going to wait until next year to try this one when I can actually start on November 1st, but I love the idea.

Finally, although they really have nothing to do with anything, I just had to include these photos of Addie's first leaf-pile jumps.  She loved it.  Remember when it took so little to make you this happy?

 
 

 

Fabric Serendipity

I finished my first ever quilt yesterday.  Yeah!  It was so much fun, and I'm so happy with how it came out.  I can't wait to make another one.  I'm not quite sure yet what kind of quilt I'll make, but yesterday I had a moment of perfect crafting good luck.  Almost a I was finishing my last stitch on the quilt (seriously I had about 5 stitches left on sewing down the binding), my 8-year-old son brought me the mail which contained my first ever internet fabric order.  I mean, how perfect is that?  To finish one project and receive the fabric for the next on at almost the very same moment.

I'm usually quite disloyal to my craft projects - especially big ones.  I'll work on it for a while and when a new idea pops into my mind, I have to stop the original project and start the new one.  Unfortunately, it's happened once or twice (yeah, right, I have a whole stash worth of yarn in unfinished knitting projects) that I haven't ever gone back to the original project.  That just adds to the list of a gazillion things I have to feel guilty about.  Not good.  This was definitely not the case with the quilt.  I really actually enjoyed working on it through every step.  I was able to convince myself for the moment at least that I actually AM the kind of person who finishes one project before starting another.  That made the timeliness of my fabric order all that much more serendipitious.

Here's the back of my quilt.  I really love it except that somehow I got the wrong amount of the fabric on the top.  I really didn't want to buy any more, so I had to improvise with my leftover sashing strips.  It really doesn't bother me too much, but it would have looked nicer without them.

My biggest problem now is figuring out what to do with it.  After all that work, I really don't want it to get dirty, but not using it kind of defeats the purpose.  I really want to use it for going to the beach or for a nice picnic with my husband with my homemade french bread and some brie and some red wine.  IF my husband weren't working all the time.  IF we weren't doing the Vegan thing and could eat cheese.  IF I weren't worried about spilling red wine on the quilt.  It's not really the right size to put on anyone's bed which is fine - I wanted to make sure I could make one first - before I invested the time and money in a full size one.  My 11-year-old daughter would probably appreciate one the most, but I'm not sure I see that happening, since she's really into nail polish right now.  Yikes.

If you're interested in making the same quilt, check out Oh Fransson's quilt-a-long.  She explains every step perfectly.  I didn't think I could make a quilt - at least not one I would be happy with, but following this quilt a-long made it easy and got me hooked.  Now I just have to come up with some of my own designs!

Here's the fabric order I was so excited about receiving.  I'm collecting red, blue, and brown fabrics to make a cover for an old hole-y down comforter.  More about that another time.

Advent Calendar

Finally, here's a photo of the Advent Calendar I've been talking about in the last few posts.  When I first saw it, I was desperate to make it, but I didn't have any Christmas-y fabric.  I was determined not to buy any new fabric for the project, so it didn't end up having the traditional Christmas colors or prints, but I love it anyway.  I got to showcase a lot of my favorite fabrics - even ones I didn't have much left of.  I have it hanging on a door in my craft room, and as you can see, I'm starting to fill it up with notions.

This was my first experiment with free motion quilting.  Actually, it was my first experiment with the whole quilt thing; making the sandwich, doing the binding, etc, and I'm hooked!  I think I mentioned in another post how great Oh, Fransson's blog is for directions on how to do all that, so I won't go on about it again here.  Definitely check it out if you want some help and motivation to make your first quilt or Advent Calendar or whatever.  It motivated me to make my first quilt which I may have already mentioned.  I'm about halfway done with sewing down the binding, so I hope to post some photos of the finished product soon.

I'm off to bake some bread, work on those tutorials I mentioned yesterday, and go to work.