Hello again!

 I know it's been forever, but I've been so busy. Work has been a whirlwind and it's left not that much time for crafts. Fortunately I've carved out some time for sewing and quilting. I finished a quilt for my cousin. My aunt said that he likes my quilts, so she wanted to pay me to make one for him for Christmas. I suppose this is the first quilt I've ever sold! I love how it turned out. It was pieced on my White Family Rotary and Singer 27, and free-motion quilted on my Singer 115.

I sewed a bunch of stuff for Christmas, and started plotting out two new quilts. One is actually a gift for my nephew. His parents love video games and named him after a video game character. This is the plan for a patchwork quilt for him. Do you recognize the character? It's pretty retro!

 I also started knitting. I've had a couple false starts with knitting over the years, and I've always regarded it as too slow to be satisfying for me. However, a couple months ago I got chatting with a woman who was passing the time by knitting, and she said that some people knit bunches of scarves just because they enjoy working with the yarn.

Bingo!

A quilt and yarn shop recently opened up in my neighborhood and I loved looking at the beautiful yarns, even though I didn't know how to knit. The idea of making scarves just to have a reason to work with the yarn really resonated with me. She also mentioned that projects that use bigger needles and chunky yarn go a lot faster, which I didn't realize. So, I bought some yarn and gave it a shot.

I made this cowl. It's pretty warm!

 

 I also made this scarf. I actually made the scarf first, but it wasn't a successful project. I learned to knit by watching a YouTube tutorial and somehow I missed the part about knitting a row, turning the work around, and knitting another row. So instead I'd knit a row left-handed, knit a row right-handed, knit a row left-handed, all along the scarf. The scarf is super-curly and curls into a tube the second you lift it off a flat surface. Whoops. At least the cowl is usable.

 

I'm sort of in love with knitting. I'm on winter break from work right now, which means I'm knitting and sewing up a storm. It's absolute bliss.

Repurposed denim quilt

I really love the quilts that are made by the ladies in Gees Bend. They're so colorful and creative, and made without buying extensive lines of matching fabric.

I also read a book about the modern clothing industry, and it included a bit about what happens to donated clothing. Apparently only about 10% of what we donate is ever sold. Some of the remainder is recycled, and a lot of it ends up in landfills.

Given both of the above, I decided to try to make my own quilt out of repurposed fabric. I bought six pairs of jeans from a thrift store, added another pair that my husband wore out, and used a flannel sheet from the store for the back.

It's not my favorite quilt design-wise, but I love the concept. I also love the fact that I turned waste into something functional that my kids love. As usual, I showed it to them and there was a scramble to see who would curl up with it first. My son said it looks like something from his favorite computer game, Minecraft. I can kind of see that.

There's no quilting on it, so I suppose that makes it a blanket and not a quilt. I used my Singer 27 for most of it, but I also used my Free a bit. I love that machine.

My last couple of quilts have featured a lot of straight line quilting, so my Singer 115 has been pretty neglected (I use it exclusively for free motion quilting). I'm thinking my next projects will be a quilt for my cousin, and a small whole-cloth wall hanging featuring a ton of free motion quilting. I can't wait.

Robot!

I saw a great idea on this blog and it's been kicking around in my head for quite some time.  You could turn your child's drawing into a stuffed animal!  Since my son loves to fill up pages and pages of paper with robot drawings, I asked him to draw me a robot to sew for him.

He drew a pretty complicated robot, but I gave it my best shot.

He adores it.  I still have to sew blue stripes on the legs, but then it'll be all done.  The proportions are off, but not bad for my first shot.

My son was glued to my side through the entire process.  I think it really sparked his interest to see his idea turn into something real.  He was full of questions about sewing and my sewing machine, my trusty Singer 27.  I love to model a maker mentality for him...I hope to encourage him to be creative.  I sew and my husband builds electronics and plays music.  I hope my kids pick something up that gives them a creative outlet. 

In the meantime he has a cool new robot to cuddle up with.

Finally finished!

After 18 months of work, I FINALLY finished my scrappy log cabin quilt. 

It's made entirely of scraps, except for two fat quarters that I purchased.  And, to be honest, there was another fat quarter that I took a little square out of, and then used the rest for this.  But the vast majority of these pieces were just scraps. 

I adore it.

I pieced it mostly on my Singer 66 hand crank and bound it with my Singer 27 treadle.  I did free motion quilting on it with my Singer 115 treadle.  The quilting isn't an overall pattern...there are lots of hearts, stars, and swirls, some pictures of things the kids would like (our house, a t-rex, a robot), words (the kids' names, "I love you," my name and the year, etc), and other things.  My hope is that in the years to come the kids will spot these things as they curl up with the quilt.  And since there's the possibility the quilt might exist after I've passed away, I hope the messages will make them happy after I'm gone.

You can't see the quilting unless you really look.  I think that makes it more special...like a secret message.

The quilt is around 64" by 64", which is about right for curling up on the couch.  I'm so happy to start 2014 with a finish I'm so proud of.

Projects!

I've been busy lately (always!) but I've been sewing more. I think not having a bee block due this month has freed up some time.  I also think that we're finding our rhythm between work, school, and the baby, and now I can carve out more sewing time.

I finished my mom's quilt...pictures of that will be forthcoming!

I also sewed up some winter gear for my son in his favorite theme...robots! 

A hat, scarf, and mittens. They were fun to sew, so soft and cozy, and since they were all made with one yard of fleece, the whole project only cost $7.00.  I'll be making a winter set for my daughter next...it'll be fun to take her to the fabric store to see what she picks!

 I've also been working on my scrappy log cabin quilt.

I'm still working on free motion quilting it.  I haven't done free motion in FOREVER, and I was surprised how rusty I was.  However, I'm back to my old ability level...which, granted, was still pretty low.  But I'm having so much fun doing it.

I'm glad things are settling down and I have regular sewing time again.  I missed it so much these past few months.

Bee blocks, Mom's quilt, and oh yeah, I had a baby

I'm finally back on my sewing machine after a hiatus of over a month.  I had my baby!  She's beautiful and wonderful, and everything went great.  But the adjustment of going from a family of four to a family of five has been a challenging one and not much time was left for sewing.  Fortunately she's started taking longer naps, which means I can sneak downstairs with the other kids and get some sewing in.

My August bee block is underway!

I think this is the first block in the bee that I'm actually sad to mail off...I wouldn't mind keeping it!  I'm still working on piecing it together (and I actually made more progress since this photo was taken this afternoon) but I already really like it.  The colors are really pretty to me.  I hope the recipient likes it too.

I also got some work in on my mom's quilt.  I'm over a third of the way done quilting, and I'm going to show it to her this weekend.  Hopefully she'll like the direction it's going, since I don't want to rip out all of that quilting.

I also got an urge to start another mini-quilt...a paper pieced Mariner's Compass.  We'll see if I actually get around to doing it...I feel like I have too many WIPs, and I want to finish some before I start some more.

It feels so good to have my hands back in fabric and my feet back on my treadle.

Attachment Love

Today I did a little work on the Carpenter's Wheel quilt.  Nearly at my due date and still able to use a treadle sewing machine - that proves how easy they are to use!

The set-up I use for piecing and straight-line quilting is actually a combination of two sewing machines - I had a sewing machine head that I was able to oil up and use, but the cabinet was in pieces.  I bought a second 27 (I felt sorry for it!) with a completely frozen head, but a cabinet that was at least intact.  They were both made in the same giant batch of Singer 27s in 1901, so I don't feel bad about smooshing them both together. 

Some people may think that the second 27 was a poor purchase, but the cabinet came stuffed with goodies in the drawers - machine manuals (how cool!) and a big box of attachments.  Attachments to make hems, attachments to make ruffles, attachments to shirr fabric, and an attachment to quilt.

There it is!  It's just a guide bar to help you follow lines you've quilted previously.  They still make them for modern machines and they look a lot the same.  They work the same too.

The quilting is not actually that puckered, I just neglected to smooth it out before I took a photo.  Oops.

The quilting bar wasn't expensive - 20 cents in 1901, which is about $5.50 in today's money.  I forget how much the whole box cost, but it was pretty expensive.  I'm so lucky that I found one!

Baby shoes

I finished my last bit of pre-baby sewing...a pair of baby shoes. 

I was hoping they'd be like bait and lure her out, but I doubt it.  At least I can just quilt away until she comes...working on quilts is so much more relaxing than working on clothing or other things that are three-dimensional.  That works out a whole different area of my brain.

Cat-astrophe

I'm trying to make light, but I'm seriously not amused.

We have three cats - Lucky Lou, Edison, and Juneau.  Edison has the tendency to wake me up around 5:30 AM by walking on my face, and Lucky Lou thinks litterbox use is optional.  I find both of these habits highly annoying, so I often refer to Juneau as "the good one."

Two days ago I finished the quilting on the central star of my mom's quilt.  I decided to bring it over to show her before I finished anything else, to see if she liked the direction I was headed.  I was going to visit her the next morning, so I carefully folded it and put it on the couch so I'd remember to bring it with me.  Juneau promptly curled up on it and went to sleep.  I laughed and thought, That's cute, it's not even done and it's cat-approved already.

The next morning I woke up and found her sleeping on the back of the couch near the quilt.  And the quilt?  Covered in cat vomit. 

I was so upset that I just put the quilt in the basement.  I couldn't even deal with it then.  Last night I brought it back out to survey the damage.  Luckily because of how it was folded only one corner of the back got stained.  However, I needed to wash it, and I couldn't very well put it through the washer and dryer in its half-quilted, half-basted state.  So I hand washed it and hung it in the basement to dry.

Today I'll inspect it in the bright sunlight.  Hopefully all of the stains will come out.  Otherwise I'm not sure what I'll do.  I've already quilted through a big chunk of it...I'd hate to rip it all out and replace the entire back.  I just really hope it all washed out.

This is the quilting I've done so far.  My mom wanted all straight lines, so I hope she likes this.

Oh, and Juneau seems fine by the way - not sick at all.  Honestly, why couldn't she have just jumped onto the floor to do that?

Pressing on

I'm 37 weeks pregnant and still using my treadle sewing machine.  I'm surprised that I'm able to do it still, but it's been pretty easy.  The only problem I had was with winding my bobbin - I usually run my machine super-fast to do it, and I get out of breath. 

Quilting goes just fine, though.

I'm finally at the quilting stage with my mom's Carpenter's Wheel quilt.  She requested a lot of straight-line stitching, which I thought would go quickly...unfortunately, it's become more challenging than I thought since I like my quilting to make an interesting pattern on the back of the quilt as well as the front.  I'm still working on laying it out but I have a general idea.

I've also been doing baby sewing - I sewed up a second flannel blanket for my baby, and a flannel and minky fabric blanket for my cousin's baby shower next week.  I want to make a pair of baby shoes too...I had intended to sew one pair in each size before the baby came, but now I think that may have been ambitious.  If I can sew a pair in the smallest size I'll be happy.

Luckily my sewing area is in the basement, and my kids ask to play in the basement at least once a day...I've been getting a lot more sewing time in.  I love summer!

At last!

Things have been really busy with wrapping up the school year (three weeks to go!) and getting ready for the baby (six weeks to go!).  I haven't been sewing a ton, but I did manage to finish another quilt top.  I've been working on this one FOREVER, so it's such a relief to get it basted.

Although pin basting on your hands and knees in your eighth month of pregnancy isn't the easiest thing.  That belly gets in the way!

I did manage to get it done, though.  Now I just have to baste my Carpenter's Wheel quilt, and start quilting them both.  I'm going to do straight line quilting on the Carpenter's Wheel one at my mom's request, but I want to do free motion on the log cabin quilt.  I have my Singer 115 set up for free motion work and it feels like it's been forever since I've used it!  I can't wait to get back to it!

I also made a baby blanket for the new arrival.  I planned on making two, so I have one to go.  I used this tutorial...it's simple and it works really well.  My kids still use the flannel blankets I made for them, even though they are really small now.  One of the blankets will be orange with yellow-striped backing, and this one is a bicycle pattern!  Not very girly, but too cute.

I really want to get going on FMQ, but first things first...tonight I need to make my bee block.  May is nearly over and I haven't started it.  It's not hard, I just need to do it.  It's so hard to go and piece another block when all I want to do is baste and quilt!

Mother's Day quilt

Today I gave my mom her Mother's Day present - a quilt top.  

I finished it at my local guild's sew day yesterday.  I'm so happy to finally see it coming together.  I asked my mom how she wanted it quilted, and she just asked for straight line quilting - easy enough!  I don't know if I'll get it basted, quilted, and bound before the baby comes, but I'm going to try. 

I'm itching to get started on this project, but before I do that I'm going to do my May bee block and finish my scrappy log cabin quilt top.  I still haven't decided on what to do for a back for this quilt, and I need some time.

Coming together

I finished assembling the half-square triangles for my Carpenter's Wheel quilt.  Once I square them up and cut out my blue squares, I can start assembling the quilt top.

This evening I laid some of it out on the floor to see how the prints worked together.  I think it'll be okay.

I kind of wrestle with this because this isn't a quilt for me - it's a quilt for my mom.  If it was mine I'd put some orange or yellow in there to make things pop.  But my mom is a very traditional quilter who likes a more muted palette, and I want to make a quilt that she'll like.  No, scratch that...she likes my quilts.  I want to make her a quilt that she'd be willing to have out in her living room.  It's kind of hard when we have differing tastes.  However, I think this is growing on me.  At least the circle pattern kind of breaks things up. 

I'm planning on giving the quilt top to her for Mother's Day.  I can't wait to see her reaction.  I hope it's good!

Bee Block #2

I finished the second block for my Newbee Quilters bee.  I think the block name is Garden Path.  The woman wanted purple and green blocks, and didn't care what hue.  I hope she likes bright!

I'll mail it off this week...just in time to start the March block.

I think this may be the last bee I do.  Maybe it'll be more motivating once I see the quilts coming together, but in my spare time I want to sew what I want to sew, not somebody else's project. I hope I feel differently by the end of the bee...either way, it will be a learning experience.

Bee Block #1

I joined a quilt block bee over on Threadbias.  It's a bee for people who are new to quilting, or new to bees.  I figured since I can answer yes to both, it would be perfect.  They posted the January block already.  The woman in charge this month wanted scrappy, brightly colorful log cabin blocks with logs of varying widths.  Even though I'm in the middle of my own log cabin quilt I was excited to try this because this is the first time I've mad a log cabin block where the logs were different widths.  It was an interesting experiment! 

I hope she likes it.  Scrappy and colorful?  Yes and yes.  She named the colors she wanted in the block and included every color of the rainbow (except purple), plus white and gray.  I tried to include it all.  I'm also trying not to pick it apart in my head and criticize it.  This is for beginners, after all.  Hopefully everyone will be kind.

Can I get a do-over?

So even though I have a lot of sewing to do for holiday gifts, I had to re-do a project.  My Mod in Milwaukee challenge project.  You know, when I finished it and immediately had the urge to take a photo of it for the competition and then tear it apart and turn it into pot holders, that should have been a red flag that I really wasn't happy with it.  But at the time I felt like it was such a headache that I didn't want to revisit it.

Well, after some time with it on my wall in my bedroom I realized I couldn't let it stay the way it was.  So I did the project over again.

I like it better this time.  Even the stitching in the middle of the squares turned out nicer.

Overall, I'm glad I did it over.  It's still not going to win anything, but I'm happier with it.

Handmade Holiday

This year my brother, my sister, and I decided to make handmade gifts for Christmas.  Actually, I decided, and my sister jumped on the bandwagon because it would be cheaper.  I left a voice mail for my brother outlining our plan and saying that the kids and I would be very happy to get cookies, banana bread, or anything else he could bake for Christmas.  I assume he's in.

I have a long list of handmade gifts for Christmas.  For my brother, my sister, and their significant others I plan on making mug rugs.  The mug rugs came together really quickly...piecing, basting, and quilting took only an afternoon and evening.  Tomorrow I hope to bind them and cross them off my list.

I love log cabin blocks.  I figured this would be a good way to make the couples' mug rugs coordinate without matching exactly.  The blue ones will be for my brother and his girlfriend, the purple for my sister and her fiance. 

I'm going to buy some cheap mugs and roll up the mug rugs in the mug.  Then I'll add some homemade cookies if I have time, and candy canes if I don't (who am I kidding, I may as well buy the candy canes now, that's totally how I'm going). 

So, that's four gifts nearly knocked out and it's not even Halloween.  That's good, because there are some others on my list that are going to take a ton of time.

My list:

Brother & girlfriend - mug rugs
Sister & fiance - mug rugs
Son's teacher - mug rug
Nephew - crib sized quilt
Mom - Carpenter's Wheel quilt (at least the top)
Dad - pot cozy

I went to my local modern quilt guild's sew day and squandered my precious hours working on my scrappy log cabin quilt and my double slice quilt.  I should have planned ahead and done these instead!  I'll know for the November sew day.

Former UFO

I finally finished my Floating Dresdens quilt!  

I really hate binding.  I haven't figured out a way to make it look great by machine, and hand binding takes forever.  I know some people machine sew the front and hand sew the back, but that doesn't seem easier than hand sewing the whole thing.  I have another quilt that's on hold because all that's left is to hand sew the binding and I just hate doing that.  I'll do it at my local quilt guild's next sew day.

Anyway, I bound this one with my Singer model 27...

...by flipping the backing fabric over the front, folding it, and sewing it down.  Cheating!

Finishing a quilt is a little anticlimactic because after all these months of work it just winds up getting tossed onto the rocking chair in my living room, or stuffed into the basket where we keep our quilts.  But over the next weeks I'll see my husband and kids wrap themselves in it, build forts with it, and take it to bed with them to keep them warm all night.  That makes the work worth it.

This former UFO is finally done.

Spirals, spirals, spirals

This evening I finished the free motion quilting on my double slice quilt.  I like the texture these swirls give the quilt.  I can't wait to wash it - it'll be so crinkly!

The fabric isn't really green, it's just a poorly-lit shot with an iPod camera.

Even though I was having a good time by the end, this might be the last free motion project I do on my Singer 27.  On Saturday I'm going to go pick up a new (well, new to me, it's really over 90 years old) Singer model 115.  Because of the way the bobbin it situated it's very conducive to free motion quilting, so that will likely be my quilting machine, which means the 27 will be for piecing.

I know, it's kind of weird to have two machines for two different jobs.  But I usually have two or more projects that I'm working on at once, and I like the idea of having a machine all set up with the right thread, foot, and tension settings for whatever I'm doing. 

Of course, since space is limited in my little sewing corner of the basement, that means that my electric machine will have to be removed from its cabinet, put into a case, and stored on a shelf.  Not that long ago I was writing about being nervous about putting my modern Brother machine away and using nothing but vintage machines.  Now I'm going to have nothing set up but non-electric machines.  I guess my attitude has changed!

I still have to do some straight-line quilting on the border of the quilt, but then it'll be ready for binding.  Hopefully I can make friends with my new 115 by getting started on quilting my Dresden plate quilt.  I'm nervous about quilting that one, but nothing will get better by putting it off.

Oh, how I love thee

I'm really starting to love quilting on my Singer 27.  My treadling is getting smoother, my stitches are getting smaller and more even, and the spirals are getting smoother.  It'll be interesting to compare the quilting at the beginning of this quilt and the quilting I did at the end.  It's still not great, but it's getting there.  I have a few decades to perfect it before I'm too old to treadle (I imagine it'll be easier to use an electric when I'm in my 80s).

I read something a long time ago about people who are passionate about a hobby, and how their brains work differently when they get into their "zone."  That's how I feel when I'm quilting with my treadle...peaceful, centered, just...happy.

I still haven't tried free motion quilting with my 66.  I am getting annoyed at the limitations of how much thread that long bobbin can hold.  I had to refill it twice this evening.  Ugh.