Expat Quilting

Arkansas Traveler Pillow

2013-03-18T14:29:00.000-05:00

My time in Cairo is winding down. I have less than a month left and I've slowly been sorting things into piles, deciding what will go to my next location and what will go into storage. I've already put most of my fabric into containers.

All of this is to say that I plan on spending my remaining time here sewing up little gifts to the friends I've developed over the past years. I've made this pillow using the Arkansas Traveler block and plan on giving it to my neighbor.

String Quilt

2013-03-14T13:55:00.000-05:00

I started another quilt from the Practical Guide to Patchwork. It's called "Valentine," but it's a basic string quilt pattern. I thought originally that I'd make it with 16 blocks, but I decided to expand to 20.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to quilt this...

Small Plates Finish

2013-03-12T13:49:00.002-05:00

I finished this quilt back in early February but never got around to posting about it. February was a busy month and I hope to do more sewing this month. I used straight line quilting along the block edges. I tried to free motion quilt it, but stopped a few minutes in. I think I need to start out with smaller projects, like place mats, before jumping into quilting something large.

It still needs to be washed, but since I have no recipient in mind I'm going to wait until it needs to be cleaned from all the cat hairs it's accumulated.

WIP Wednesday: Cairo Snow Day

2013-01-30T13:07:00.000-06:00

We obviously don't have real snow days in Cairo, instead civil insurrection sometimes makes it impossible to go to work. This entire week I've been waking up and immediately checking my blackberry to see if I've been instructed not to come in or whether there's been a delayed opening, which makes me feel like I'm back in school and waiting for word on whether there's a snow day. I haven't had a full day of work so far this week, which has done wonders for getting sewing projects done.

So far I've completed my strip and flip baby quilt and my grandmother's birthday pillow.

I've finished my small plates quilt top and am going to start basting and quilting it later this week.

I've also started pulling fabrics to make my Valentine quilt from A Practical Guide to Patchwork.

photo my colleague took on the way into work yesterday

Linking up with Lee from Freshly Pieced! Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday pillow

2013-01-28T13:42:00.000-06:00

My grandmother's birthday is coming up and I'm hoping this will arrive in the States in time. I made a pillow based on this flying geese pillow and finished it using the instructions in this post. It was pretty easy to put together and a successful first paper piercing experience! The only snag is that I used a pillow form that claimed it was 18"x18" and I think it was really much smaller than that because my pillow cover looks very large.

I think she'll love it!

Another baby quilt

2013-01-27T07:33:00.000-06:00

It seems like everyone in Cairo is pregnant these days so I've made a third baby quilt ahead of the baby shower next weekend. The mother-to-be is a bit picky so hopefully this will live up to her standards! I used Cluck Cluck Sew's tutorial for the strip and flip baby quilt since I needed a quick pattern due to being out of town for the past week. Luckily there was an Egyptian holiday on Thursday and I got an unexpected day off today due to all the rioting that's going on near my place of work. Oh Egypt...I think this is the fourth or fifth extra day off due to unsafe security situations in my time here, not to mention all the countless times we've had an early release or delayed start.

I couldn't decide which fabric to use for binding at first. I have a ton of brown fabric that I don't go through that quickly, but I thought it made the quilt look heavy.

I think it turned out quite well! One of these days I'll have to start trying to use free motion quilting...

Open Wide Zipper Pouch

2013-01-13T12:00:00.000-06:00

I spent part of my weekend making an open wide zipper pouch from the Noodle-Head blog. It was super easy to put together, though it always seems like I have to take out at least one seam per bag. For this one it was forgetting to leave an area open to turn it right side out.

I think it turned out well! The fabric is Bella by Lotta Jansdotter from Windham Fabrisc. The pouch is currently housing all my empty bobbins and sewing machine needles. :)

Small Plates

2013-01-11T12:00:00.000-06:00

I decided to start the "small plates" quilt from The Practical Guide to Patchwork, though I haven't decided how large I want to make it. On one hand it's been really easy to piece the blocks, but then if I want to try free motion quilting, it should probably be a smaller quilt to start out with. I guess I'll put together the current blocks and then decided how big to make it. There won't be any action on it for a while since I've run out of white fabric.

In other news you'll probably be seeing a lot of Simply Color from Moda in the next few months. I got a fat quarter bundle and just calculated that it's a total of 10.5 yards of fabric from 42 fat quarters. Between my new wave quilt and this one I've probably only used about eight so I've got a long way to go before it gets depleted from my stash. I'm not sure if I'll buy many more pre-cut bundles. Simply Color is great because it has a lot of colors I don't have in my stash, but if I really love a print, I'd probably want more of it than just a fat quarter. It also seems like the jelly rolls and other pre-cuts are overpriced for the amount of fabric that you get.

Kite Baby Quilt

2013-01-09T12:00:00.000-06:00

I had originally intended for my new wave quilt to go to a good friend/co-worker who is expecting her first child in March. When she announced that she was having a baby girl I decided to make a different quilt that involved more 'girly' colors than the wave quilt that seems more gender neutral/boy-ish to my eyes. I saw this tutorial on the Modern Quilt Guild blog and thought it seemed perfect.

I guess the only thing that really makes this quilt 'girly' is that it has coral-y reds. I'm not sure I'll ever make a quilt like this again because I found it really tedious. There was a lot of squaring (or rectangling) up to do and I never felt like any of my diamonds had all of their points match in the end. Also some of the points were lopped off when I joined together the rows. I'm still not sure why this was the case since the blocks were perfect half rectangle triangles after I squared them up.

But my biggest mistake didn't come until after I had sewn the binding on. I saw a tutorial on machine stitching the binding on and decided to try it. Usually I hand sew the binding onto the back, but I'm always in the mood for a short cut so decided to give machine binding a whirl. I think it would have turned out perfectly well, except I had already stitched the binding onto the front 3/8" from the edge and the tutorial recommended that the binding be attached a quarter from the edge. Not a big deal, I thought, and grabbed my rotary cutter and ruler and quickly trimmed everything up to a quarter of an inch. Then I went to pin the binding to the back and discovered that when I trimmed up the binding, I also sliced through the bias tape so that it was no longer continuous. I went ahead and stitched the binding on anyways and it turned out pretty well apart from the corners. After that I went back and hand stitched the corners on so that the raw edges weren't visible.

Situations like these always make me wonder how noticeable the flaws are to people who don't quilt.

Free Motion Quilting

2013-01-07T12:00:00.000-06:00

I took advantage of a recent Egyptian holiday to start experimenting with free motion quilting. I've mostly used my walking foot for straight lines so far and tried out several designs with my new darning foot, which curiously enough is actually called a quilting foot by Bernina. The only difference I can see between the darning foot #9 and quilting foot #29 is that the darning foot has a metal circle end and the quilting foot has a plastic rounded rectangular end. I guess the plastic makes it easier to see the designs as they're being quilted.

bubbles

robot/wavy lines

This attempt to do boxy straight lines didn't work as well with the darning foot. Perhaps it would be better with the walking foot.

meandering lines

loopy lines

I think the loopy lines needed more loops. Otherwise it started to look like the meandering lines and sometimes the loops started to turn into swirls. The meandering lines were definitely the easiest once I started to get the hang of it.

Happy New Year!

2013-01-05T10:00:00.001-06:00

Here's one of my recent finishes, the New Wave quilt, pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. It's intended for one of my husband's colleagues who just gave birth to a boy. She won't return to Egypt for a couple of months though so it's sitting on a chair right now. The fabric is Simply Color from Moda.

I had an exciting Christmas and received a walking foot from my grandmother and a darning foot from my sister. I had quilted the above quilt before receiving these gifts and was shocked to see how much easier it is to quilt straight lines using a walking first. Of course, before that happened I managed to put the foot on the wrong way and had wondered what all the fuss was about because I couldn't see the huge difference. The next few weeks will definitely involve a lot of free motion quilting practice. I also have another baby quilt to finish before a shower next week and need to start thinking about what to give my grandmother for her birthday on February 14. Maybe a pillow?

What I've been up to lately....

2012-10-28T14:59:00.000-05:00

gathered clutches from the Noodlehead pattern (1st & 2nd attempts)

finished batch of brownies quilt

table runner for my grandmother for Christmas

Christmas stockings

Batch of Brownies almost done!

2012-09-17T10:50:00.000-05:00

I've had lots of free time to finish this quilt as I unexpectedly got a three-day weekend. Alice seems to approve of the fabric choices!

On to making the quilt back! I've decided I must baste and quilt this one and my Fenced In quilt before starting any new projects.

Yellow blocks

2012-09-12T14:12:00.000-05:00

I wasn't expecting to have these blocks completed today. But recent events in Cairo and neighboring countries made me want to focus on something else for a while. I had a late start and early dismissal to my work day and things still won't be back to normal tomorrow.

block A

block B

all together now!

Blue Blocks

2012-09-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

Here are my blue blocks for my Batch of Brownies quilt. There are just the yellow blocks left before I can lay them all out and start adding the sashing. :)

Stash Building

2012-09-08T13:00:00.000-05:00

I ordered some fabric a while back and it finally got here. Happy day!

more Summersville!

stash supplements

too cute to resist!

Purple blocks

2012-09-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

I'm making my way through the purple blocks for the Batch of Brownies quilt. I'm really liking how they're coming together!

block A

block B

block C

Other projects lying around include my Fenced In quilt which I still need to baste and quilt together.

Batch of Brownies

2012-09-03T13:00:00.000-05:00

I've started making the blocks for my next quilt selection out of the Practical Guide to Patchwork: Batch of Brownies. I'm making my way through the red blocks and then I'll move on to purple, blue, and yellow.

block A construction

block A

block B

block C

all red blocks

The blocks are turning out pretty well so far! Of course there are some points that don't match up exactly, but they aren't too noticeable.

Happy Labor Day to all those in the United States!

Quilt Back

2012-08-31T13:00:00.000-05:00

I didn't have that much fabric left over from making the blocks. I decided to piece them together in a strip and border it with the grey sashing fabric.

sorry for the bad picture!

Then I added blocks from the remaining fabrics in the bundle on either side. The more I look at it, the less I'm sure that I like it. Is it too busy? Would it be better if the side blocks were coordinated on either side like in this colorblock design? What if the whole back had a border? Do I just not like the way it looks in pictures? I guess I'll be letting this rest until I can figure out what I want.

Fenced In Quilt Top!

2012-08-29T13:00:00.000-05:00

All the blocks have been completed and rows joined together! I tweaked the pattern a little bit, apart from making a smaller version (16 blocks instead of 36), I also changed the measurements slightly since I wanted to make sure I'd have enough fabric from my fat quarters. As a result, my blocks are more squares than rectangles and I didn't think through the implications this would have for adding sashing. It all worked out well with some minor adjustments. I think it would have been better to follow the pattern faithfully since it would have been a little more forgiving in terms of hiding when the square blocks weren't exactly squares. From a distance it isn't too obvious when the blocks didn't meet up at least.

Now I need to decide what to do about the quilt back! I definitely can't follow the pattern for this one since I don't have enough leftover fabric, though I think I do want to incorporate whatever is left as well as use the remaining fat quarters from the bundle.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pierced. Thanks for stopping by!

Sewing Machine Cover

2012-08-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

This probably won't come as a shock to anyone, but Cairo is dusty. When I first moved here I was always wondering why I kept seeing people hose down streets in the morning. I figured it had something to do with the heat and wanting to keep the concrete cooler, but then I found out that they were doing it to keep the dust down, which makes way more sense. We're lucky that the building we live in is sealed pretty well, though the dust still manages to sneak in and coat the surfaces of everything if we don't clean regularly.

All this is to say that I wanted to make a cover for my sewing machine. I have one that came from the manufacturer, but it has an open top so that I can use the handle. My machine never leaves its spot so having a hole in the cover isn't necessary. Plus it lets the dust in!

I used this tutorial to make my cover. It turned out pretty well, except I think I was too generous in the measurements. I didn't want to make the fit too smug, but instead it's a little too loose. I probably would have used interfacing if I had any available to me since the cover is a little floppy for my taste. Oh well! I used fabric from the Summersville line, which I love.

A relic from the 80s

2012-08-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

My grandmother sent me one of her quilting books to peruse. It's called Lap Quilting by Georgia Bonesteel. It was written in 1982 and I have to say I'm not a huge fan of the quilts in the book. This probably gets into the whole "tradition vs modern" quilting debate, but the quilts in the book just aren't my style. I think it's the fabric choices more than anything, I don't have a problem with traditional quilt blocks and think it would be fun to make a sampler quilt someday. Lap quilting is a technique I'm not going to delve into either - at least not in the near future. For those of you that are as unenlightened as I was, in lap quilting you attach your pierced block to batting and the backing fabric and immediately quilt it. After all your blocks have been pierced and quilting, then you join them all together.

The reason my grandmother sent me the book was because it has a collection of 70 quilt blocks among its pages. I think it'd be really fun to go through my grandmother's quilt book collection. We've given her a lot of Kansas City Star quilt books over the past years and honestly she's kind of a hoarder when it comes to saving notions, patterns, books, magazines, and fabric. Who knows what else I'd be able to find!

Do you have any favorite quilting books or magazines? I think my next purchases will be Quilting Modern by Katie Pedersen and Jacquie Gering and Free Motion Quilting by Angela Walters.

block by block

2012-08-22T11:11:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm making progress on my Fenced In quilt. The blocks are slowly coming together. Pretty soon it'll be time to add the sashing and join them all together!

completed blocks!

I've decided on this gray tiny dot print from Bonnie & Camile's Ruby line for the sashing. I had wanted to do a gray solid, but there isn't enough in my stash and I am too impatient to order it and wait for it to arrive in Egypt. :)

Eid Mubarak!

2012-08-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

We have a four day weekend here in Egypt to celebrate the Eid at the end of Ramadan. I had wanted to travel, but instead got assigned to work so I've been making progress on my quilt instead.

All cut up!

The fabric I'm using is from a fat quarter bundle that Jeni put together for the Fat Quarter Shop. I'm not the best at deciding whether fabric goes together so I tend to buy from collections and ready-made bundles. Plus I don't have a huge fabric stash which limits my ability to improvise! Choosing fabric for projects is definitely one of my areas for improvement.

Sorted into blocks

Fenced In

2012-08-18T13:18:00.001-05:00

I've decided to start out by making one of the beginner quilts from The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman. Fenced In looks like exactly what I need to get back into the swing of quilting - the blocks are composed of 6 strips of fabric. No worrying about matching points here! I've also settled on making a total of 16 blocks instead of 36 like the pattern recommends.