Friday, December 13, 2013

An unplanned hiatus

One of the things I love about where I live is that I walk to and from work. That said, one part of the trail I walk along stays in the shade for much of each day and that created a black ice situation this week. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you already know that I slipped and fractured my wrist this week. The really ironic part was I was thinking as I was approaching this stretch, maybe I should walk in the snow next to the trail to get better traction, and slipped as I was moving toward the snow to get off the paved trail.

One of the plusses of military medicine is that I was treated immediately in an ER that is only open to military members and their dependents, and the next day got a custom splint made for me by the Occupational Health clinic. This means a temporary hiatus from quilting since I can't hold a rotary cutter, and my thumb is locked in place.



Saturday, December 7, 2013

Sew Together (Again)

I made another Sew Together bag, and I think I'm going to keep this one for myself. I made it entirely from Oval Elements in red/burgundy/pink. And now, I've ordered a heavy weight cotton duck to make a couple more of these as took kits for my rowing team. I currently have a tool bag which has just one main pocket, but my 7/16" and 10mm wrenches are very hard to tell apart when just reaching in for one. With this bag I'll be able to separate them into distinct pockets and have the adjustable wrenches in the third pocket. I like when my varied interests can come together - rowing and sewing - since they rarely have any overlap.

In progress shows the interior clipped to the exterior before they were joined.
 Done!
 All red zippers on this one - while it may be hard to tell since I didn't take any pictures side by side, the interior is a darker red/burgundy compared to the exterior. 

Monday, December 2, 2013

Sew Together and a WIP

I first saw the Sew Together bag pattern over the summer on Craftsy, but I didn't get it (it's a little pricey for a bag pattern at $12), but I did purchase it recently, and now it's going to be my holiday gift of choice this season. This first one is going to my mom. When I showed her the pattern, her first thought was color coding the center zippers so that you'd always know what's in which pocket, so this one has three different colors for the inner zippers. The pattern itself is fairly straight forward, although the diagram is a little confusing, and it was easier to read the words instead of looking at the picture (this seems to be the most common sentiment about the pattern). It took about 2.5 hours to make, which included all the cutting and ironing of interfacing.



The other project that I started working on is a paper pieced square in a square pattern. I've always though square in a square quilts looked sharp, so I decided to make one. It's pretty mindless sewing, so I can make a bunch of blocks at a time without worrying about lining up seams or matching things up. I'm also doing completely random color placement with my stacks of fabric, only watching to make sure I don't duplicate any prints within each block. 
On the Sunday before Thanksgiving, one of the DC Modern Quilt Guild members posted to Instagram in the morning that she was going to have a sewing day at home and that others were welcome to join. I went over along with another guild member, Quirky Granola Girl Melinda. We all worked and chatted then had a great lunch at Surfside. I knocked out nearly 30 blocks that day (each block will finish to 6") and I've made another 20 over the last week with more to come today and tomorrow.