Sunday, June 30, 2013

A new MODERN quilt shop has opened!

Thanks to social media, specifically Katie from SwimBikeQuilt's instagram feed, I took a field trip down to Fairfax, VA yesterday to visit the area's newest quilt shop which specifically has a modern bent. The owner is actually a former manager of the quilt shop that's closer to me, but still definitely more traditional than modern. The best part about her shop, in my opinion, is a long arm machine that she will be renting out starting in a couple of months.

The new place is called Quilter's Studio in the Fair City Mall. Along with growing my stash while I was there, I was chatting with the owner and she asked me to put together some class proposals to teach. I will be proposing paper piecing and a few others.

Here are the fabrics I picked up for my stash:

 The other excellent part about yesterday was getting this package in the mail. It's from the Mug Rug swap that I made the Under the Sea mini for. My partner definitely spoiled me, and her piecing/quilting were amazingly well done. I can't wait for the next round to try more fun techniques.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A Special Project - a little break from quilting

Today I made a bag. It's the pattern I picked up while at the Quilting show in Baltimore in May. Last week I got the interfacing that I need (specifically I got enough for 2 bags worth since I knew I wanted to make one for myself, too).

One of my cousins is going to have a baby this fall, and I knew I wanted to make something for her. I'm sure I'll also make a quilt for the baby, but I wanted to make something that would be functional and useful. She LOVES giraffes, always has, and even more so after a safari trip in Tanzania about 5 years ago. She also likes using all different bags and has fun accessorizing. Her baby should be able to accessorize in style with giraffes, too.

This is by far the most involved bag construction I've ever done. It has external pockets with elastic and outer pockets on both sides along with inner pockets. The last thing I need to do is put on the zipper/gusset, but that will take very little time. In terms of total working time, it probably took me about 6 hours to make this bag, but that's because I did orange peel quilting on the main body of the bag to make it extra sturdy. If I hadn't done that and for subsequent ones where I know the order/process, my guess is it's a 3-3.5 hour bag. Wonder Clips were used extensively during construction.

Nice drop handles that fit over shoulders well. The front/back are identical with the double external center pockets.  
 Inside - there are three pockets on each side made from where the straps are sewn - these have fusible fleece and are fully lined, so they are sturdy pockets. 
 Sides match the front pockets and have an elasticized pocket 
perfect for holding a bottles (water or for baby)
 Close up of the elasticized pocket. 

This pattern is called the Little Sister Bag and the pattern also includes a clutch wallet pattern which I haven't made (yet).

Sunday, June 23, 2013

90"x90" Achieved

Today I finished making the strip sets for the quilt that'll be going on my bed. I made the pieces of the chevrons in six row increments then cut them on the diagonal to get what becomes half of the chevron.

 The angle of the picture is weird because it's hard to take a picture of a quilt this big in my apartment. And it's taken with my phone rather than my real camera because with the lens that's on it, I couldn't get a full shot. 
And here is bee block number two for the Summer 3x6 - she requested bright pastels (not sure if that's actually a thing) in pink, yellow, and aqua. But these seemed to match her mosaic of colors given to us as guidance. Four more of these blocks to go by mid-July. 

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Lots of in-progress items...

The quilt top for Quilt Dad is completed and in the mail. I can't wait to see how it gets quilted and what the finished product looks like from his whole pattern set from all the testers.

That said, I've got lots of in-progress things going on. The large pearl bracelets quilt top for my bed just needs more gray to finish it off - I decided to make the gray stripes as the edges, so I'll have another set of 4 at the bottom.
 It's really hard to take a good picture of a quilt that's going to be 88"x88". So here's most of it.
 I've started to add the next gray ring around all the blocks for the pineapple quilt. I need to iron these open to add the other two sides before I can add the corner pieces. Then once those corner pieces are on, that will be it for the blocks, and it will be time to assemble the top.
This is the first quadrant of my next summer bee block, she requested pink, aqua, and yellow. The border around the triangles is a darker, more saturated pink. 
And lastly, in my paper pieced bee, I'm the Queen for the month of July. I made my fabric selections and now I need to cut and package them all up to my hive mates. All of the background prints are texty.

Friday, June 14, 2013

First summer hive bee block done

I had to acquire more yardage of the pearl bracelets to be able to finish the quilt that I'm making for my bed, so in the mean time I made one of my summer hive bee blocks. This is the newest pattern from Anna over at Six White Horses. I bought it through her Craftsy shop ($3.00) as soon as she posted it. Her paper pieced designs are all geometric and sharp - she also designed the seam star I did for the last round.

This hive member requested dark green, chartreuse, and aqua with a grey background. I'll do the others over the course of the next month and send them out as a batch mid-July.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Very Productive Weekend

Yesterday, I had one of those moments where I had my fabric and it was time to cut. It wasn't the initial design I had planned for this quilt which will go on my bed. I don't actually have a queen sized quilt on my bed. I've been using the one my mom made for me before my senior year of college. And while I will continue to use it in my living room, it was originally used on a double bed.

 The only place I can lay it out is in my living room - it will finish to 90" wide.

I have used quite a bit of Best Press on this project with all the cutting on the bias. That said, it's a very quick pattern to put together. It's strip pieced then cut on the diagonal. Each strip set yields 5 pieces once cut. It will end up being 93" long. I'm going to add a set of the three blues above the gray sections to make that a stripe. 

Monday, June 3, 2013

Pineapples from March

If you recall, when I went to training in March, on one of the weekends I was able to return to Boston from Newport to get my sewing machine and started on a Pineapple blocks project. Today, I pulled that back out and got all the blocks to the point where they have their second gray border. I also had to iron all the blocks since they'd been in a tote bag and got a little bit squished between going back to Boston then moving to DC.


Sunday, June 2, 2013

All but done.

I finished the last of the blocks for pattern testing today and laid it out on my living room floor. This means I'll be back to posting more frequently because I'll be able to take pictures of everything I'm working on. Here are a couple of peeks of corners. I have a few WIPs that I'll be getting back to now that this is all but sewn together.