March Along Progress

We are a little over halfway through the month, and since weekly check-ins for March Along have not happened, a halfway point check-in seemed like a good idea.

I did very well for the first 2 weeks, but week 3 I got very busy with life. Between kids events, job interview, church stuff, school volunteering, doctor appointments, dance lessons and then getting sick with the Flu (I think), I was just tired out! Sewing did not appeal.

I am still sick, so I think today I will just read my newest Block magazine for my 15 minutes.

Here are some of my efforts this month.

Pieces cut for making a "Farm Girl Vintage" quilt block.

First round of fabric choices for the quilt pattern test.

Squares cut for quilt pattern test. The light where I sew is not good for photographs. See the photo below for truer colors.

Scraps from the quilt pattern test. They look very different in this light. It is pretty true to the real colors.

Diaper clutch made for a neighbor of my mom's.

Shirt appliqued with a little shamrock for St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day outfit with a  rosette on the headband  and an appliqued shamrock on the shirt.

2 of 6 rosettes made for St. Patrick's Day. These went to teachers to pin on their shirts.

Drawstring bag made to carry a camping sleep-mat. Later it will house my yoga mat.

Throwback - when I was a kid, I took clogging lessons. I have recently started taking them again with my sister. It is quite fun and funny. We laugh a lot!

 

March Along: Week 3 Summary

http://scientificquilter.com/2014/03/23/34-7-march-a-long-2014-week-3-report-in/

 I am reporting in for my 3rd week of the Scientific Quilter's March Along (craft every day for 15 minutes). Not such a great week for crafting. It was just a really busy week and when I was not busy I was exhausted. The 2 things I completed have been on my to-do list for a while.  The first were 8-10 more fabric Personal Progress folders for the incoming Beehives at church (which I forgot to photograph before I delivered them today). I have been working on them since December I think. January at the latest. I had them about halfway done a while ago and kept putting off finishing them. I had to finish the majority of them before April because that was when they are going to be presented.

The towels I had purchased in February to applique as Valentine gifts for the ladies I Visit Teach. Well, that didn't happen, so I found some other fabric in my stash and did a Monogram instead. They turned out cute. I just wish I had thought to get one to make for myself! :)

Week 3 
Day 15 No craft time
Day 16 Read the Sewing with Oilcloth book
Day 17 No craft time
Day 18 No craft time
Day 19 Made appliqué Kitchen Towels

Day 20 Seriously No craft time
Day 21 Finished the PP Fabric folders (tutorial from ohbabyredding.com)

Welcome Gnome pillow complete!

I finished the Welcome Gnome pillow in time to submit to the Pillow Collective at Amy's Creative Side.

I learned a lot making this pillow, not the least of which is remember to stuff your pillow before you stitch it shut. :)

  I like how it turned out. I ended up using the red border fabric I purchased for it on the back and used a dot from my stash instead. I polled the fam and they all agreed it was the better choice.



I Scotch-Garded both this pillow and the star pillow I made to make it easy to spot clean them. This one especially needed it since it is not a cover but stuffed and stitched shut. I won't be throwing this in the washer.

Again, this pattern is from Schlosser Designs and can be purchased for a limited time HERE.

 

Welcome Gnome Pillow : Part 3 complete

I finished the embroidery on the Welcome Gnome Pillow I am making. For the most part it was an enjoyable experience. Doing embroidery makes me get tense from time to time, so I would have to set it down and relax for a bit.
Also, it was kind of funny at one point, that my needle was squeaking through the fabric and giving my husband the willies.

I haven't pressed it. I am leaving it hanging in my bathroom hoping the steam will help it out a bit in getting rid of the hoop mark. In a few days I will press it and put the borders on it.

I just noticed I forgot to put my Gnomey's eyes on. :) Guess I better fix that.


 

Stitching away!

I have had some actual real sewing time over the last week or so and it has been so nice!
I have had a couple of burp cloths that I needed to finish up. My mother in law was kind enough to stitch up some embroidered terry and a cloth diaper for me using  Piece N Quilt's embroidery patterns and then I used the tutorial to make some cloths with them.

They are cute, but as a mom, I think they might be on the small side.  They end up about 9 1/2 inches square. I plan on asking the recipient in a few weeks how they work for her.

I also made a bag for my teen daughter's toiletries.

Our cupboard was getting a little out of hand and after looking at baskets and bins and bags at various stores, I came back home and remembered something I had pinned a while back. I went and checked out the pattern and it looked like it would be just right for the space and things that needed to be organized. It uses Jeni of In Color Order's drawstring bag tutorial and then an add on to add the pockets by Terri at Sew Fantastic.

I love that it stands up on it's own, thanks to a piece of cardboard between layers. It will make it so I can't wash it, and next time I will use some plastic, but it's good for now.

I have also been making progress on my pillow.

I got the applique stitched down and picked up a large hoop today to do the embroidery. I checked out 2 books from the library to help me learn more about applique and embroidery.

I tried almost all the stitches in the embroidery book, Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners.

I am still struggling with French Knots. I think I need a video, because following the written instructions either gets me a little tiny stitch or a kind of sort of French Knot. They don't quite look right. And I need those to make my little gnomey's eyes, so I really have to get them down.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I get kind of twitchy usually when I do small fiddly type things. But I did okay. I can't quite call it relaxing yet, but maybe someday.  This book was just about right for my skill set and most of the instructions were easy to understand. There was one diagram that they left the letters off, by accident I'm sure. The letters were identifying where your needle was going in and out from "A" to "B" to "C" and back to "A" and so forth, so missing letters made it kind of tricky to figure out. But overall I liked the book.

When I finish the pillow I want to try some of the applique techniques in the Stash Happy: 25 Fresh Projects for Fabric Lovers book. I also want to track down the other books in this series. They all look great.

A pillow to be

I just started a cute little pillow to practice my applique skills a little more. It also happens that Amy Ellis is hosting the Pillow Collective so hopefully I will be able to finish it in time to enter.
 
I have my applique ready to stitch down and the words traced to embroider. (Another skill I am practicing.)

#pillowcollective

I have a feeling that the grass is going to be interesting to applique. I will have to practice my calming breathing techniques.



This was a pattern test, or rather a pattern proofread for Erin Schlosser's limited edition pattern for Quilt Market Fall 2013 ...

*Limited Edition* Welcome Gnome Pillow - Photo from http://store.schlosserdesigns.com

 ...and I thought it was a good fit to practice my applique.

Mine is not as colorful and scrappy as Erin's as I went with a more traditional Garden Gnome look.

I am not doing the rectangle pillow, instead I set it up for a square pillow. I am kind of regretting it now, since I think the rectangle will stay put on my couch better, but oh well. 

Applique practice

I picked up a cute mug rug kit at the local quilt shop in November. I got it to make as a birthday gift, but ended up not having time to make it, so yesterday I made it for myself.

 It was quick and fun, once I figured out the applique order and chose an applique method. (Thank you Google and MIL!) The extent of the instructions for this kit were: "Your background fabric has been quilted... Sewwww all you need to do is add the applique, french knot for the bird's eye and place a button on the wing. Bind your mug rug and you're done!" The kit came with  ribbon and a piece of rickrack as well. Not sure what those were for. I took a photo of the sample at the suggestion of the shop clerk and those items were not on it. So I guess I got a bonus! :)

*Note for kit/pattern makers. It is my opinion that instructions should assume you know little to nothing about what you are doing. In fact, I think beginners pick up kits like these more often than experienced sewers. So even brief step by step instructions or tips would have been very much appreciated.  I summed up my process in 10 steps when I was done on the pattern sheet. Not too tough and now I know what to do next time.

 My applique is improving. I had some trouble with my Wonder Under. It did not want to stay on the fabric. I had to do the branch 2 times because when I peeled the backing paper off, the Wonder Under peeled off with it and also shredded the edges of the piece.

After listening to a recent podcast on mini quilts, I used MamaCJT's tips on using single fold binding to bind the quilt.

  I am not sure how big mug rugs run, but this seems a tad large for that category. It is closer to place mat size. It is now hanging on my wall with clips recommended by another podcaster (or 2) .

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday was littlest miss's Valentine party at playgroup. She didn't have anything festive to wear, so I grabbed a shirt that she wears under tank dresses, because it has a stain and is almost too small. I traced a heart onto Pellon with a cookie cutter that I conveniently had left out, ironed it to some fabric and slapped in on the shirt. My machine was already set up for FMQ so I just scribbled some stitching around it to secure it.
 (Side note: turns out yesterday I had been FMQ-ing with the feed dogs up! No wonder it was so hard to maneuver!)

She loved it it took about 10 minutes or less and now I can pass the shirt on, since the stain is more or less hidden by the heart. (I thought I had it all covered, but nope. Not quite. :) . Oh well.)

Hope your Valentine's Day is Wonderful!

PS

My 3 year old made her own Valentines with a little cutting and folding help from me.
She did great stamping, gluing, and assembling them. They have a little candy watch or bracelet inside.

 

Sewing like mad!

It seems that I have been sewing non-stop for the last little while, but I couldn't show any of it. I still can't show some of it. But one fun and new for me project is a tote bag with super cute applique that I have had the privilege to pattern test.
Erin Schlosser of Schlosser Designs created it with Melissa at Iza Pearl Design.


Unfortunately I got hung up in my testing when I went to my thread box for my light blue thread and it was gone! I needed it to quilt the front and back of the bag. The quilting is the last step before assembly. So, my bag was stuck in limbo until I could get to the store for more thread. (And I missed my deadline.)
I got thread today and the plan is to quilt the rest and assemble it tomorrow. But in the meantime, you can see my cutie sassy girl that is appliqued on the front.

Waiting patiently for quilting.

 I have appliqued very little previously and with not very good results when I did. But this time I did awesome! (Except for that dainty little mouth, which had me nearly cursing as I messed it up again and again.) But it turned out alright. She has a cute tie that goes on her neck where the scarf "ties" under her chin. Did I already say super cute? Well, can you blame me?

You can see photos of the full bag and the other tester's bags on Erin's website HERE

The pattern is now up for sale as a PDF download or a hard copy in Erin's shop. 

She has a lot of fun patterns and they are easy to follow. I have made the Zoe Messenger bag

and the Floral Clutch.

I have plans to make a Reversible Grocery Tote soon.
Go check them out!


Another item in the works is a baby quilt for a friend who is the wife of my husband's co-worker. The wives of 5D Robotics all get along great and we get together for movie musical night, birthdays, movie premiers, things like that. 3 of those ladies are expecting babies in March, so we are having a lunch to celebrate the new arrivals on the 18th.
This quilt is for the gal who we know is having a girl. There is also a boy on the way (my sister in law), and a surprise baby.

It is not really "baby" fabric, but it is  pretty. I have been hoarding it for something special. It is Tidbits by Kari Ramsay of Fresh Cut Quilts. By coincidence the pattern is from her too, CrissCross, though I think it is a discontinued one. I have had it for a long time.  I think it was the second printed pattern I ever bought. I am not making the full quilt, just 12 blocks instead of 20 and no borders (probably).
 I messed up the cutting so I was forced into doing the blocks the way you see below, instead of all the florals being on the corners. I think it will be okay. There are green and pinks still to come. This is just the yellow and brown set.



I have not worked on any UFOs since I finished the pillow. But that is okay! :) They are not going anywhere.

Have a great weekend!

 

A little Applique

I finally got around to doing the appliqued initials on my kids' bath towels. Now I will know who left their towel in the hall and it won't be the ghost of "I didn't do it". Haha!

I have only appliqued one other thing and it didn't go very well. I mean it was okay, but it was obvious that I was inexperienced. I did these differently, opting for the raw edge applique and a straight stitch to sew it down. It went much better. The curves were still a bear, as is clear by the "J".  But they are just bath towels so who really cares! :) Thankfully the other 3 all are straight edged letters. The "M" did not get done since my daughter swiped her towel out of the clean laundry before I could tell her not to. I don't really want to applique on a used towel. Don't know why really,other than it just seems yucky. So I still have one to do.

I am also proud of the fact that the fabric I chose went pretty close to perfect with the shower curtain even though I had to go by memory what color green was in it. Woohoo!

WIP Wednesday

Hey, Hey, Hey! It's Work in Progress Wednesday!
What have I been up to? Well, let's see.

Things that have been at the top of my WIP list are:

• Tree skirt - Yes, my tree is still in the buff. Let's just leave it at that.

• Stockings - Still just one done. I discovered the reason why I did not have enough scraps to do the advent calender. It was because I was using the whole fat quarter for the stocking, when I had intended to use half for the stocking front and half for the advent pockets, and a different fabric to make all the backs of the stockings. The backing fabric was sitting in the bottom of the project box. I cleaned it out to organize my to-do list and get the cobwebs out of my brain and found it. So.... now I am making the first stocking again, which puts me back at 6 stockings. That is not very good progress.

• Advent Calendar - Front and back and batting cut.
• Hand quilting on In-Spur-Ation quilt. Not really any progress.
• Block 4 of MOTP LC QA - I printed the pattern out!
• December BOM - I picked up the kit
  

Since last week I added some more to-do's which are:

• Teacher gifts - not sewn, just gifts cards and a treat with a digitally created tag*. - DONE
  

• Neighbor gifts - plates of treats. - DONE

• A reusable gift bag/tote for my sister's family's Christmas gift - DONE and mailed!

Don't look too closely at the tag. I tried my hand at applique and it did not go well. I am also still REALLY bad at bindings.

• Table runners for the ladies I visit teach (if you follow this link, click "additional information") and my V.T. companion (4 total) and tags* (I used the same tag as the teacher gifts, just a little change) - DONE!

• Gift bag/tote for MIL, FIL, and my parent's gifts.
• Baby K's Christmas Jammies
  

• Christmas cards to put together, print and mail. I think I am going to use templates from Creativity by Crystal. She just came out with 5x7 ones that will work great.

AND I am officially overwhelmed.

:)

Now it's time to go see what else is happening in blog land! Go to Freshly Pieced to see what other folks are working on!

*Tag elements by Shabby Princess