Month 1 of Fabric Diet Done: Quilt in a Day and Borders

Yesterday I made all the blocks for an Irish Chain. It's a pattern that is very simple and traditional, but it was spiced up by using Alison Glass streamers. I cut all the squares, and I put them in a paper bag pulling them out at random to make the blocks. I've already figured out what I want to do for borders, but those will have to wait a week or so since I'm going out of town this weekend.

I added the first ring of red and then an 8" white border to the hexagons (forgive the wrinkles, I didn't attempt any smoothing after laying it down). I'm going to put another ring of red, and maybe another narrower ring of white to then bind with red.

This finishes the first month of the 6 month fabric diet that many of us bloggers have put ourselves on. The only fabric I purchased came from The Great Fabric Destash on Instagram where I was able to get 4 yards of my favorite color of oval elements for $5/yard. I sold over $100 worth (after paying for my purchase), so I'm taking a pass on that one. I'm going to keep working from my stash through June with the only upcoming purchases being solids since I'm going to need another bolt of white soon, and backing fabrics. 

Back!

After being casted, splinted, then casted again with full arm immobilization, I'm in a splint that gives me decent use of my right hand. My wrist is locked into a neutral position, but I can quilt again. Over the last week I've pieced and quilted a 60" square and over the last couple of days made a set in hexagon flimsy that needs borders.

I named this Simply Colored Style since I used charms from Simply Color and Simply Style by V and Co.

A zoomed in shot of the quilting, and yes this is a screen shot from my phone, but it shows the detail well.

Set in hexagons at the beginning. This was my first time doing a set in shape, and it was far easier than I had expected, despite knowing that it was simple, the 1/4 inch lined up perfectly every time.

And here they are as the center of what will have borders. The first border has already been added and now I'm debating what I want the second and third borders to be and if I want to piece them or have solid strips wrapping around.

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.

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. 

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. 

Long Overdue Finish

I made a quilt top and quilted it while I still lived in Boston back in January/February. I finally put the binding on it on Tuesday of this week. Yeah, I was slacking on that one a little. As I've said, binding is my least favorite part of quilting, all you people who say you feel zen as you hand bind, I just don't get it.

Here is the quilt while it was still just a flimsy and I was still living in my tiny studio apartment and hung quilts off my lofted bed frame to take pictures. Have I mentioned how much I love have a dedicated sewing room? This is the quilt I made with the fat quarter bundle I won from Diary of a Quilter during the first week I started following her blog. It's Madrona Road. 

This quilt finished to 54"x66" a perfect throw size. 

And here is the pebbling that I did on all the white stripes.

And here are the finished photos. I embroidered the name of a coworker's child onto it. I rarely make quilts with a purpose, which is part of why I don't get around to binding them. And this Corpsman (enlisted Navy medical person, think like a cross between an EMT and a nurse) took particular interest when I had shown him some pictures of my quilts. His daughter is going to be 3 soon, so I told him I could add her name to this without a problem, and I delivered it to him today. 

 I just did a very tight zig-zag stitch and free motioned her name.

 A peek at the minky back and the gray cross-hatch binding. 

 I love backing quilts with minky, it makes them so soft. 

Scrappy Plus Finish

This must be some sort of record. I managed to bind a quilt (my least favorite part) less than a week after I finished the quilting. In this case it's the Scrappy Plus Along quilt that was inspired by Amy Given Sewist at Blotch and Thrum. I've mentioned the newest quilt shop that I've been frequenting in Northern Virginia before, Quilter's Studio, and they have a long arm available to rent. I quilted it there, finishing on Thursday, and then bound it off today.

This quilt will be going to one of my patients. She was in a skydiving accident where the parachute collapsed on itself ~80 feet off the ground. She has to be in traction, and since it's a military hospital most of the donations we get are geared towards men. I didn't make this quilt with any reason other than I wanted to make this pattern, and I know it will be loved by both her and her family (her mother has already invited me and several of the other nurses to visit their home in Georgia where she's already told me about a quilt museum set up in an old railroad car).

Home right after the quilting. 

 With binding!

 All the corners. 

 Rolled, and all the corners because that's the thing to do (or so show all the other quilting blogs).

 The backing, it's 2/3 dot print, 1/3 white. This shows the quilting well. 

 And this was in my apartment when I realized my living room really shows the fact that I'm a quilter based on what's on all the seating choices. That said, the pink quilt and yellow/green one on the far chair are out so that I can hang them on the walls.