Needle and Spatula

Sewing Maternity Tops

2013-03-14T23:30:00.000-07:00

Being pregnant has been a great excuse to try my hand at sewing myself more knit tops - something that I have wanted to do but hadn't prioritized. Having more of a deadline to get things done for them to be useful while I was pregnant helped me get in gear! I have been lucky to also get some nice maternity clothes as hand-me-downs and bought a few things, but I was having a lot of fun sewing these up too. I was tempted to make more but realized it would be kind of ridiculous - but hopefully I can keep that energy going to make more clothes for myself and the kiddo in the future!

I made a few out of upcycled tops that I had found at thrift stores - I found that starting with a top that was a 2X size or larger was good to make sure that there was plenty of fabric to use and particularly that it would be long enough to cover my growing belly. For the aqua colored top above, I reused the original neckline and the sleeve and bottom hems. I traced a maternity tee that I owned for the basic tee pattern (sleeve/armhole/sides), and added the gathering below the bust before I cut out the pieces. (To add the gathering, I just sewed a piece of elastic on the wrong side of the shirt, stretching it as much as I could as I sewed). I sewed everything together just using my regular sewing machine, using the knit stitch which is kind of a slight zigzag (the symbol looks like a lightning bolt on my machine) and am very happy with how it turned out!

This v-neck tee is even more basic, but was put together basically the same way (minus the gathering at the bust) - I used the original neckline and hems again. I really like the color of this one, it has been a nice basic to wear.

I also made some tops just starting with knit fabric that I had on hand. I honestly haven't worn this one too much both because the fit is a little off and it's not really my color... but it was fun practice at least. I had remembered seeing Anna from Noodlehead's t-shirt tutorial where you make a t-shirt with kind of dolman-style sleeves where they are just part of the front and back pattern pieces rather than inset at the shoulder. I didn't actually look back at the tutorial before I sewed, which probably would have helped - I think a looser fit in the bust/shoulders is definitely more flattering for this type of tee and it's not what I did. It's not horrible but like I said, it's not my favorite. Definitely piques my interest to try this style tee again though!

See how there's just a seam down the top of the shoulder? Definitely easy construction.

The last two things that I sewed were based on one of my favorite styles of tops/dresses, where you have a gathered cross front. I made a top as practice (and because I wanted a top) and then I made a dress with the same basic style and pattern. I was pretty proud that I was able to figure out how to make the gathered cross front based on modifying a regular t-shirt pattern and that it turned out so nicely!

I didn't have the energy to take photos and write up a tutorial when I was making these, but this style shirt would also be great for non-maternity so if I make another I may write up a tutorial. I'm hoping that both this top and the dress still work for non-maternity wear (and it certainly would be easy to make a non-maternity style using less fabric/gathers for the lower part). When I made them, I intentionally designed them to be fairly low cut and intended to wear with a tank underneath - I figure that after baby is born, I can wear them with a nursing tank and they'll work great for that too!

(Ahem, pardon the jeans under the dress. We took all these photos one day and I didn't feel like changing out of my jeans when we got to taking the photos of the dress.)

The back for the shirt was also similar to the back of the dress, with some gathers/pleats but not as many as the front.

As you can tell from these photos, I'm definitely in the home stretch of this pregnancy! We actually took these a few weeks ago so I think I look even more pregnant now. Our baby is due next week so she could come anytime in the next few weeks! I have already started my maternity leave from work and am taking advantage of the time to rest and also do some more crafts, so hopefully I'll find time to come back and put up another post or two before baby arrives (unless she comes sooner rather than later).

2012 Birthday Socks

2013-02-15T23:17:00.000-08:00

Since Lawson and I have been dating, each year I have knit him a pair of socks for his birthday (OK, often they are actually finished a bit after his birthday... you can see the last couple years socks here and here). After making him fingering weight socks the first year I have stuck to heavier weight yarns since then... I am always amazed by how much larger his socks need to be than mine, so this helps me get them finished without getting totally frustrated. Sport weight yarn seems to be the perfect weight, yielding a really wearable slightly heavy weight sock, and actually I have been knitting my own socks with sport weight yarn more and more too, and enjoying how quick they are to make and how they are more durable.

So I am always keeping an eye out for nice sport weight sock yarn, and looking online last year I asked Lawson what colorway he preferred of Heritage 150 Paints sock yarn, and I have to say I was surprised when he picked this colorful red and orange one! It was certainly more fun to knit with than some of the drab solid colors I've used for his socks in other years and he seems very happy with them.

I finished them a good month or two after his birthday this year, and then the first time he wore them (just around the house) they somehow got a huge run in the sole of one foot. I don't know if there was a problem with the yarn or if they just got caught on a nail or something and ripped, but I took them back to fix and didn't get to it until early this year. Since I had knitted them from the top down, I just took out the foot starting where the rip was, and reknit the foot and toe. Lawson was very patient but has enjoyed having his finished socks back!

One of my favorite knitting books is Sensational Knitted Socks, since it lets you come up with a customized pattern for socks based on your gauge and the repeat of the stitch pattern you want to use, and I used that again for these socks. I just did a simple mistake rib (alternating rows of k1 p1 and rows of knit) for the pattern, with a bit of a rolled cuff at the top and my regular heel flap heel and standard toe.

Socks are one of my favorite things to knit, but I really didn't knit as many pairs last year as usual - between getting caught up with knitting hats and cowls last winter/spring and then baby sweaters as gifts and for our baby most of the summer and fall! I had bought this Shibui Stacatto sock yarn almost entirely because I loved the colors, and cast on a pair of socks for myself on Christmas eve when I didn't have another project to work on and didn't have anything else ready to start.

As I was knitting I loved how soft the yarn was (its a beautiful blend of soft merino wool and silk with just a touch of nylon), and just hoped that they would wear well over time. I am so thrilled that after several washings they are still in very good shape and deliciously soft - I am definitely planning to find more of this yarn and make myself some more socks with it!

I kept these socks even more basic, with just simple stockinette stitch after a cuff, and they were really quick to knit up since the yarn is sport weight. I referred to a new book, The Sock Knitter's Handbook, (by the same author as my favorite Sensational Socks book), in knitting these - it has the key formulas for heels and toes and other essential sock-knitting info, and is a smaller more portable size. I'm excited to have a new handy sock reference book!

Purple and red improv quilt

2013-01-30T22:31:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try to get over my compunction to have to "catch up" on everything chronologically before sharing anything more recent and share this quilt that I finished earlier this month. I love how it turned out so I didn't want to wait to share!

I made this quilt for a dear friend who lives on the east coast and has been having some pretty serious health troubles over the past several years that have gotten worse lately. I was feeling pretty helpless to do anything from afar, but she has been having to spend a lot of time resting and I figured a quilt to wrap herself up in couldn't hurt. I feel like I almost always am making baby quilts, so it was actually really fun to make something for an adult and not worry that it was going to be too modern or not what the parents wanted. I've been so inspired by the improv quilts that my online friends have made, especially Krista and Natalie, so it was a great chance to play around with the technique!

I was pretty sure that my friend's living room had some bright red and purple accents in it so that was the color scheme I started with. The Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush fabric (near the top left in the block above) was a great fit for both the color scheme and the feel that I was going for, and it inspired me to add pops of bright yellow/orange in each block. I used a mixture of scraps and cutting up some of my stash fabrics, so there is really quite a variety of fabrics in the quilt which is fun.

I tried to keep the blocks interesting with some more detailed/smaller pieced parts and some larger pieces mixed in. I forgot to measure the final quilt and I don't think I even wrote down the dimensions of each block, but I am pretty sure that they were about 12"x14" before I added the white (Kona snow) borders, which I think were 1.5" strips to finish at 1" after I pieced them. I used everyone's new favorite neutral, yarn-dyed essex cotton/linen blend in black, which I just love the texture of and how it plays off the bright colors. I quilted it with a random lines design which I think is a great match for the improv piecing - you can't really see it in the photos but I quilted using a lilac thread which was a fun complement to the color scheme.

I also made my first scrappy binding which was a fun way to play up the scrappy, improv nature of the blocks. I machine sewed the binding as I have started to do more often, it just is so fast and its nice to know that it will be really durable (although I still love a hand-sewn binding too). The backing is a thrifted crimson red sheet which you can see a peek of above.

I'm happy to say that my friend loves the quilt and it's nice to know that I'm helping take care of her in a small way even if I can't be there myself!

A few baby sweaters

2013-01-22T21:46:00.001-08:00

I have always had the problem when I keep a journal that I compulsively feel the need to "catch up" by writing about what has happened in order before getting to the current events... Anyone else have that problem? In any case, I seem to be falling into that same trap here. Despite my lack of energy for blogging all summer and fall, I really did do quite a bit of crafting, and I do want to share all those projects! I may need to work on loosening up and sharing some more recent stuff too, though, before I forget all the interesting details.

I made both of these baby sweaters over the summer and they were both gifts for new babies that came this summer, and both made with knit picks comfy yarn (the first in worsted weight and the second in sport weight) - this is a great yarn for baby items, very soft and easy to work with and I love the range of colors it comes in.

This cute sweater for my nephew was made from the little coffee bean pattern and I just love the stripes - it's really fun to browse through the other ones folks have made on ravelry and see all the color combinations. I'm definitely hoping to make one of these for our peanut at some point (maybe in one of the larger, toddler sizes that the designer sells a pattern for).

I made this yellow sweater for our friends' baby from the seamless yoked baby sweater pattern. I loved how simple this sweater was to knit, but that it still had the nice detail of the slip stitch design on the yoke. There are links on the ravelry page for this pattern to a number of other similar seamless baby sweater patterns from this designer and I'll definitely be tempted to try some of them (or make this one again).

Love these cute vintage buttons that I used on the sweater too!

I have three different sweaters that I've made for our baby that are all nearly but not quite finished... two just need to be blocked and have buttons sewn on and the last one I need to do some (annoying and somewhat tricky) seaming and pick up and knit a button band... I've been indulging myself with fun little new projects instead of just finishing them all up, but hopefully I'll motivate to get them all finished soon.

A few handsewn gifts

2013-01-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much for all your kind wishes on my last blog post! I am looking forward to catching up with posts on many of the things I have made over the last 6 months, and thought I'd start with a round up of some of the sewn gifts that I have made. I have been making baby crafts too so I promise to share some of what I've been making to get ready for baby soon!

Starting with the most recent first, my mom asked me to make her a plastic bag holder for Christmas, and I was struggling a bit with which fabric to use until she said she really liked some scrappy bee blocks I'd made - so I thought I'd do some scrappy patchwork. I used the Anna Maria Horner Totem print as the inspiration fabric and then pulled lots of other prints from my stash that went with it to make a big patchwork block, then made up my own design to turn it into a fully lined bag holder. I'm happy to say that my mom really liked it!

I also made a couple dumpling pouches using the tutorial from Michelle patterns, but this is the only one I remembered to take a photo of before gifting. I had bought this Joel Dewberry fabric (from the heirloom line) without a specific purpose so it was fun to get to put it to use! It was fun to try the pattern, this was the first time I had done a curved zipper like this and she explained it very clearly, I was really happy with how it turned out. I only tried the "easier" curve one but maybe if I make more I will venture the smaller, curvier one!

Earlier in the year, I made my mother in law a quilted wine tote using my tutorial for her birthday. It's always funny to go back and follow your own patterns/tutorials when you haven't looked at them in a while! This time, I used insulated batting to make the tote so that it would help keep wine chilled in transit.

For her birthday, my mother had asked for some throw pillows with fun fabrics - I love Sandi Henderson's secret garden fabric line, and it reminded me of my mom and the colors she likes, so I used mostly fabrics from that line and then some other coordinating fabrics from my stash. The pillow on the left is a flying geese block with a kona ash background, and the pillow on the left is a design I made up with a white background. I like them both although I think I like the clean look and contrast of the white background a bit more.

And I couldn't resist showing off a few of the great fabrics in this line on the backs of the pillows!

Hope your new year is off to a good, crafty start!

Bee blocks and exciting news!

2012-12-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! It has been far too long since I posted here, but there is a good reason... Lawson and I are expecting a baby girl in March! My pregnancy has been going smoothly, but I was just completely wiped out for most of the summer. I have been feeling much better for the past couple months, but have been putting a lot of my energy into getting our house set up, getting ready for the baby, cooking, and working on various craft projects. But I miss blogging and really want to get back in the habit! So I'm planning to do some catch up posts over the coming weeks to share some of the projects that I have been working on these past several months.

As a start, here are the bee blocks that I have made since July (!) for my do.good stitches bee circle, the love circle. I have really enjoyed participating in this bee for the past year and a half, and have been so inspired by the block choices each month, and by seeing the work of my other bee members, but I decided that it made sense for me to step down to focus on getting ready for baby. So these are my last bee blocks for now - although I hope to have time to participate in a bee again in the future as it has been such a great experience!

I love the design that these converging corners blocks make when all put together (and I love the nautical colors that Deb chose!) - see the finished quilt over on Deb's blog.

These + and x blocks for Ara Jane were so fun to put together - I definitely spent as much time picking out which scraps to use as I did actually sewing them. And the finished quilt is a stunner!

I love Natalie's tutorial for wonky pinwheels - the blocks are quick to make and the pattern they make is so fun! I always love the color palettes Natalie picks out and this one was no exception - check out the assembled quilt top, doesn't it just feel like fall?

I had been meaning to try English Paper Piecing so it was fun to make these 6-pointed star blocks for Rachel. I love the color palette she choose and can't wait to see the assembled quilt top!

Some of my favorite bee blocks have been the ones where the quilter asked us to improvise off a theme (like the Asterisk blocks for Lee), so I was excited when Jacey asked us to make blocks based on a Shoo Fly but to have fun with them! I can't wait to see how the quilt comes together with all the different sizes and variations that folks made.

Thanks again to all my fellow love circle members! It has been so fun sewing together with you.

Creampuff Recipe (mini-eclairs)

2012-08-04T23:52:00.003-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, about our bastille day themed housewarming party, I made creampuffs (eg, mini-eclairs) for the party and they were a big hit! I tried (arguably unsuccessfully) not to go too overboard with the baking, but I really wanted to try my hand at making an authentic french pastry - when I have visited france, the amazing range of delicious treats at the corner patisserie were one of my favorite things. Plus, it was a great excuse to get to use a new cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, which I have been wanting to try out ever since I got it as a gift for the holidays. While I visit Boston pretty regularly, I have never been to this bakery, but I had heard great things about the cookbook, and just from reading through it I could tell that a lot of thought and testing had gone into the recipes. She has a lot of great tips in a techniques section, like just what temperature butter should be to best cream with sugar, how best to fold two ingredients together, and so forth - it's hard to absorb and remember in one reading but I'm sure I'll refer back to it over time to improve my baking.

So, I had pretty high expectations for the cookbook going in, and this recipe did not disappoint. I have never made creampuffs before, but a guest mentioned that she had had trouble when she tried making them in the past and they didn't rise well - I can only think that they turned out well because of the excellent instructions, or possibly just dumb luck. Hopefully if I make them again I can get it all to work as well! I'm pretty tempted to try some of the other delicious recipes in this cookbook before I repeat these, however. I had a lot of fun making them, but I'm not going to lie, as you can see from the extensive directions below, they were quite a bit of work - luckily, I knew what I was getting into and I did as much of the work the day before as I could and then basically just assembled them on the day of the party.

Chocolate-covered Creampuffs
Adapted from Flour

For the pate a choux (creampuff shells):

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup water
1 cup all purpose flour
4 eggs, lightly whisked together

For the cream filling:

1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cake flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup heavy cream

For the ganache (chocolate topping):

2/3 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (or 4 ounces chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate)
1/2 cup heavy cream

To make the creampuff shells:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment (or butter them). In a medium saucepan over medium heat (or I did this in a double-boiler to be sure I didn't overheat or scorch it), heat the butter, sugar, salt and water until the butter is melted. Do not boil - you don't want any of the liquid to cook off. Add the flour and stir until fully incorporated, using a wooden spoon. The recipe directs to keep stirring over medium heat until the mixture starts to get thicker and looks like a loose dough more than a stiff batter, and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan; she says this will take 3-4 minutes but mine seemed to get there very quickly, I'd say less than a minute, so I just stopped then.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle mixer attached (I used the paddle attachment with built in scraper and it worked well). Mix on medium-low for 1 minute - you will notice steam coming off. (The recipe notes, if you prefer to work by hand you can mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes). On medium-low speed (or beating quickly by hand), add the eggs gradually. Once the eggs have been added, increase the speed to medium and beat for about 20 seconds, until the dough looks shiny.

Using a pastry bag and the biggest tip you've got (the recipe calls for a 1 inch tip but I only had one that was probably 1/4", but it worked - or you could just use a plastic bag and snip off the corner), pipe out balls about 1.5" across onto the baking sheet. As you can see in the photo above, I didn't space mine too far apart and it was fine, but you don't want them closer than an inch or so apart. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, at which point the pastries should have puffed up and will be starting to brown. Turn the heat down to 325 and bake for another 1/2 hour, until they are fully browned. Place the pans on wire racks (or I just put them on empty burners on my stove) and let cool. If you are making in advance, you can store in an airtight container - they can be frozen for up to 2 weeks, or stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. To refresh, put them back on a baking sheet (straight from the freezer if frozen) and heat in a 325 oven - for 6-8 minutes if frozen, 2-3 minutes if not. Again, let cool completely before filling. (I made mine the day before and refreshed as the recipe directed and they didn't taste stale at all).

To make the cream filling:
The recipe uses a cream filling that is a mixture of a custard and whipped cream, which she calls "Tropez Cream" - it's a bit time intensive but I thought it was really delicious.

Scald the milk over medium high heat (heat until almost boiling, when bubbles begin to form around the edges, but do not boil) - the recipe suggests using a medium saucepan again, but I used the double boiler (probably not necessary for the scalding but I do think it makes the later steps harder to mess up - I pretty much always use a double boiler when I make custard for that reason). While the milk heats, mix together the sugar, flour, and salt in a small bowl, and whisk together the egg and egg yolk in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk the flour mixture into the egg mixture - it will be pasty and thick.

When the milk is heated, remove from the heat and slowly add it to the sugar/flour/egg mixture, whisking thoroughly as you go. Once all the milk is whisked in, scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and put over medium heat. Whisk continuously and strongly for 4-6 minutes (I found that it helped to hold the whisk in an oven mitt so my hand didn't overheat, but that may have also been from the steam from the doubleboiler). Initially the mixture will be very liquid and foamy but it will start to thicken and the bubbles will go away. When it thickens, you can stop whisking periodically and see if it is at a boil - when it bubbles, whisk again for 10 more seconds then remove from heat.

Pour the custard through a fine sieve into a heat-safe medium bowl, and stir in the vanilla extract. Cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until cold. Or you can refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days (this is what I did, as I made the day before). Just before assembling the creampuffs, whip the heavy cream until it has soft peaks. Whisk the cold custard and then fold the whipped cream and the custard together using a rubber spatula. Refrigerate if not using immediately.

To make chocolate ganache:
I was relieved to find that this step was much simpler than making the other two parts. Like the creampuff shells and the custard, I made the ganache a day in advance and refrigerated it, but then I ended up having to microwave it to get it back to liquid (mostly because I hadn't given it long enough to come to room temperature). Since it was so easy to make, if I were making these again I would just wait and make it on the day of.

Put the chocolate in a small heat-proof bowl. Scald the cream over medium-high heat, and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. After it sits for 30 seconds to a minute, slowly mix it together until the chocolate is all melted and the mixture is smooth, then let cool to room temperature. (It can be stored in a container in the fridge for up to a week, and then brought back to room temperature to use).

To assemble the creampuffs:
Fill a pastry bag with the cream filling, using a medium sized tip. Use the pastry tip, a knife, or just your fingers to open each puff enough to fill with the cream. I opened them from the side, which wasn't as pretty, and just noticed in writing this up that the recipe actually says to poke a hole in the bottom - maybe that would have worked better, although it seems like the cream might seep out then. There's a surprising amount of space in there for cream and I was impressed that the recipe made just about exactly the right amounts of cream filling and ganache for the cream puffs. Turn the puffs upside down and dip the tops in the ganache, and then let rest for a few minutes to let the chocolate set. (Maybe because I had microwaved it to get it softened up, mine never really set up so the chocolate was a bit runny - but still delicious - when I served them). Serve that day, ideally within 4 hours.

Bastille Day Housewarming Party

2012-07-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

Lawson and I really like to entertain, so since we moved into our house in May, Lawson and I have been looking forward to having a housewarming party and breaking in our new house. Since the weekend of July 14th was the best time for us, we decided to have a Bastille day themed party - which turned out to be a great excuse to come up with a french-themed menu.

I may have gone a little overboard... we had a cheese plate and a veggie tray, and I cooked a number of favorite items such as french lentil salad and meringues. I made Smitten Kitchen's Zucchini and Ricotta Galette, which I had made once before and was just as yummy this time as the first time (although I didn't get a picture, so you'll have to take my word that it really does turn out as great as she says). I also made a lemon curd fruit tart that I had made before but which I hadn't made in years, and which was a great way to use fresh berries from the farmer's market, and I made a broccoli quiche which I had made before (although I wasn't as thrilled with how it turned out).

I tried out a few new recipes - a mushroom walnut pate, and creampuffs (mini-eclairs) which were a big hit, especially with the kids at the party. I'll be back to share recipes soon!

The party went really well and all the food was all a hit, although we were pretty wiped out afterwards. We are looking forward to entertaining more in our house now that we are getting to be mostly settled in!

3 months of bee blocks

2012-07-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

I feel like every blog post I have written lately starts with an apology about how long it has been since I last blogged, so I won't do that, other than to say I certainly didn't intend for it to be this long and hope to get back into a more consistent blogging habit soon! In good news, we are all moved into our new house and getting closer to mostly unpacked. We are really enjoying the new house and I am hoping to have much more time for sewing and other fun pursuits soon!
So, here are my last three months of bee blocks that I made for the Love circle of the do.good stitches bee. Above are this past month's improv block for Jacey - I hadn't done much improv piecing before, and I really enjoyed making them! I'll definitely have to do some more improv projects soon.

For May, Deb asked us to make Patchwork Wheel blocks from (tutorial by Elizabeth of Don't call me Betsy). I had fun making these scrappy bright blocks and enjoyed the secondary pattern of a star that emerges when you put them together.

For April, Rachel asked us to make Polaroid blocks loosely following this tutorial - but said it was fine if they had fewer than 9 polaroids in each block. I liked the looser arrangement with fewer "photos" so I paper pieced each of the polaroids and then basically built each part up and fit it all together. It was really fun to get to fussy-cut some of my cute fabrics and showcase them with these blocks!

end of winter knitting

2012-05-06T23:05:00.001-07:00

So, I have had in the back of my mind that I should do a knitting blog post soon, but I hadn't fully realized how long it had been since I had written one. So long, in fact, that all these items now seem out of place because the seasons have changed... oops. In my defense, it has only just started feeling warm here in Oregon and I actually just finished (and wore) one of the cowl (below) last week. Anyways, this is kind of a roundup of the end of my winter knitting for the year. Since I didn't have many hats or scarves that I had knit for myself (and those that I did have ended up in storage when we moved), I went on a bit of a winter accessories knitting bonanza this year, helped on by a temporary obsession with cowls - as seen in previous posts this winter here, here, here, and here.

Pretty much all the projects in this post came out of desire to think of a use for a fun yarn more than anything, and the winter accessories kick was a good fit with trying out new yarns without having to commit to a big project. The hat above is the Claudia pattern, knit with 1 skein of superwash 220 that I bought exclusively because I loved the teal color. The hat is a bit snug and since it was warming up by the time I finished it, I didn't get much wear out if it this year, but I am hoping that it will break in well with more use next year.

This necklace/cowl thing is made from the sevencircle pattern (although I ended up only making 6 circles), and was a great project for malabrigo sock yarn - which I had wanted to try but was hesitant to use for socks since it is 100% wool (no nylon) so it seemed like it would wear out quickly for socks. It is an interesting pattern, where you cast on a bunch of stitches, knit some rows, then cast off most of the stitches and cast back on a different number, repeat. You end up with loops attached by a small continuous section at the back that you can see in the photo above, and the back section mostly rolls up when you are wearing it and isn't too noticeable.

Finally, I just finished this cowl, the tuesday night cowl pattern, which was a great match for super soft tosh merino yarn. I had heard folks online gush about tosh, but after having some serious pilling with other single ply yarns like malabrigo, I was hesitant to buy this expensive yarn for a big project. I love the depth of color in the yarn, so it will be good to see how well it wears - if nothing else, I would definitely use it for more hats/scarves/cowls in the future, if not for a sweater (not that I have really been knitting adult-sized sweaters lately anyways).

This pattern was really fun, with a series of really big cables that give it a neat folded texture when you are wearing it. The construction was cool too - you do a provisional cast on and then knit back and forth like you were making a scarf, and then at the end you do a grafting stitch to join the two sets of live stitches and make an invisible join to form the loop. I tried a new provisional cast-on technique which was so much easier than the chained cast-on I have done in the past. It was especially great because I was using my knitpicks interchangeable needles - since you end up with the new stitches held on a needle, I just took off the needle tips and put on the needle end caps while I was knitting making a convenient stitch holder. Then at the end when I was ready to graft I just put a needle tip back on one end and I was ready to start the kitchener stitch. (Apologies for all the lingo for any non-knitters reading this).

In other news, we are moving on Friday, so the next time I post may be from the new house (fingers crossed we will have internet there soon). I'll try to take some photos of the house to share here!

1001 Peeps Half Square Triangle Quilt

2012-04-21T23:48:00.000-07:00

I finally finished up the twin-size half square triangle quilt that I have been working on today (which I mentioned when I posted about my HST placemats). Crafting time (and blogging time, clearly) has continued to be more scarce lately as we finalized our house purchase. Thanks for all the well wishes on my last post! We closed this week and will be moving in about a month, we are very excited!

So, about the quilt - this is the first twin size quilt that I have pieced and then quilted myself and it made me even more impressed by folks that quilt bed size quilts on their home machines... it definitely took at lot of wrangling (and made me think about getting a nicer sewing machine with more room under the arm someday). It was gorgeous out today and we went for a walk in a nearby park and took some quick photos of the quilt while we were there.

Lawson was having a hard time holding it all up since it really is pretty big, you can get a better picture of the design in this photo where the quilt is folded 2/5 of the way down. It is a (late) 8th birthday present for my god-daughter, whose favorite color is purple. I knew she would love these 1001 peeps fabrics (by Lizzy House) as soon as they came out, and I think I bought them all a year or so ago - I'm glad that I was finally able to make this quilt for her!

The quilt layout is 8 blocks wide by 10 blocks high, and each HST block is 8" finished (so they were 8.5" unfinished). I wanted to go with a pretty large block size both to make the project more manageable, and to make sure that the characters in the fabric were visible. I made most of the blocks using the technique where you sew all around the edges a square and then cut it diagonally twice into 4 HST blocks (shown here), so I started with 13.5" squares of fabric (and then I did trim the blocks still, although I'm not sure it was really necessary).

I quilted it with straight(ish) lines on the diagonal and used a pinkish-beige sheet for most of the backing, with a pieced strip inserted. I started with fat quarters of the 1001 peeps fabric and used almost all of it with this design, which worked out really well since I definitely hadn't planned it out before I bought the fabric! If you aren't familiar with this fabric line, you can see a bit more of the details of it in the photo above - it has some more abstract prints and also ones with little characters and scenes. It's super cute!

I'm linking up to Megan's Festival of Half Square Triangles over at Canoe Ridge Creations - there are lots of beautiful HST quilts entered, so definitely check it out if you haven't yet for some fun triangular inspiration! I'm also linking up my HST placemats from my last post :)

Aqua, Grey and Yellow

2012-04-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

I just finished sewing my first quilt top with half square triangles (more on that later), and since I had never sewn half square triangles before, I wanted to do a quick project to practice before diving into making a whole twin sized quilt top. I made these using the method where you draw a diagonal line down the middle of a square and then sew 1/4" on either side of it - Jeni has a tutorial here. I originally planned to make a pillow top, but then midway through sewing up the rows I decided I was more excited about seeing these triangles on my table than on my couch, so I sewed up two more rows and made a set of placemats.

The finished triangles are 3" so these measure a nice 12"x18". I did my best to place them randomly, but I realized that with a scrappy patchwork version like this, where you don't have a defined light/dark or pattern/solid, pretty much any layout ends up looking like either zig-zags or flying geese. So I tried not to worry too much about the patterns that emerged and just went with it.

Both to save time, for more durability, and to practice my technique, I did the binding on these placemats all by machine - I have done this before but have to look it up each time, this time I followed AmandaJean's tutorial and was really happy with how it turned out!

I bound and backed these in Kona Medium Grey, and had fun quilting them in two different patterns to create a little variety. I actually really love how the backs look, it makes me want to make a set of really basic solid placemats that just have fun quilting designs on them! Or maybe I'll just use the backs of these sometimes :) I had a lot of fun learning a new technique this way so I am thinking that I may use this same color palette (or something that goes) in the future to make other scrappy placemats with different patchwork techniques that I have been wanting to try out. Wouldn't that make a fun set?

Speaking of this great color combination... when I went to pull fabrics from my stash to make the HST blocks, I just gravitated toward this color combination, and it was only midway through all the cutting and piecing that it occurred to me that it was nearly exactly the color combination that Natalie had picked out for our March do.good stitches blocks. I guess it was lurking in my subconscious, too funny! It worked out well, though, because it meant that I had already gotten out all the fabrics that I needed to make my bee blocks this month. I had a lot of fun with this pattern (following this tutorial) and definitely want to do more with it in the future - maybe make a table runner? It was definitely nice to do some loose, improv-style piecing after lots of precise HST corners!

[ETA] I'm linking up to Megan's Festival of Half Square Triangles over at Canoe Ridge Creations - there are lots of beautiful HST quilts entered, so definitely check it out if you haven't yet for some fun triangular inspiration!

greetings from your absentee blogger

2012-03-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit MIA around here lately, but I have a good excuse! We are in the process of buying our first house (closing in 3 weeks) so that has been eating up what spare time I had. We are very excited! I actually have still been squeezing in some time for crafts, I just haven't been good about taking photos and writing blog posts. So this is a knitting update of things that I made several weeks ago since the more recent projects still need to have ends woven in, photos taken, etc. This hat was a quick one that I made for the recent craft hope project to make hats and bags for kids with cancer.

I also was knitting the rose ribs sock pattern from the book Sock Knitting Master Class, which I really should write more about at some point - it's a great book - but I didn't take the time to knit a gauge swatch or even to try on the socks until I was 2/3 through with the first one, and they are way. too. small. Bummer. The lace pattern was so pretty and not that hard to keep track of while knitting, so I may try to knit these again on larger needles or in the larger size at another time. But for now I decided I that my life was complicated enough right now and my knitting should be easy.

So I treated myself to some yummy soft malabrigo chunky yarn in this fun yellow/ochre/almost chartreuse color and knitted myself up a quick cowl (the luxe cowl pattern) which I found via angry chicken. I normally don't wear a lot of bright colors so I kind of surprised myself when I bought this yarn, and have surprised myself even more to find that I love wearing it! So I am kind of on a run of making cowls... it is starting to feel like spring here but I am tempted to make another before it warms up for real... maybe this one that a friend and I saw a sample for at a yarn shop here in Portland?

Happy spring to you!

Flannel Bathrobe

2012-03-12T21:56:00.001-07:00

I have wanted a flannel bathrobe for a really long time, but have always been put off by the fact that they cost what seems like a lot of money, and couldn't I make myself one anyways? Now that I actually have made one, $60 bucks or more doesn't seem that expensive, I have to say. I couldn't stomach buying 6 yards of flannel fabric, so I bought this funny leafy patterned king size sheet at goodwill and then combined it with another flannel sheet that I had in my stash for the contrasting collar/cuffs.

The pattern that I used was Butterick 6837... the robes on the cover looked cute and "very loose fitting" sounded comfy. Unfortunately, I got so caught up in making the robe that I forgot that I am a short person and that I should pay attention to things like sleeve length and making the adjustments that make it worthwhile to have made yourself a custom garment. So, long story short, it's huge on me. The sleeves are way to long, the belt falls way below my waist, and "very loose fitting" is an understatement. I am trying to think of it as a wearable muslin, and conveniently it fits Lawson perfectly so I gave it to him. Lawson pointed out that this robe is not exactly manly and then had the great idea that I could dye it green or blue - so I may do that at some point in the future.

Although really, now that I have "given" it to him, it doesn't annoy me that it's oversized if it's because I am borrowing my husband's robe... so I have basically claimed it back. I bought another sheet to make another one if I have the time and energy, and honestly I am not sure if I do make another one if I will use this pattern and try to adjust it, or if I will just find a new pattern that is a bit more fitted. Luckily I am not in a rush, since I now do have a nice snuggly (if extremely baggy) robe to wear!

Bento Bikes Baby Quilt

2012-02-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

Good friends of ours are having a baby at any moment, and I had been holding on to this fabric to make them a baby quilt for a while, and got it done just in time. Now that they have recieved the quilt I can share it with you!

Here's a photo of the whole quilt, post washing. They are both avid bicyclists, so when the Avalon fabric line from Birch fabrics came out, I knew it would be perfect for them! I used a number of fabrics from the line and then supplemented with other grey, green, and teal fabrics from my stash.

To make this bento box design, I made nine log cabin/square within square blocks and then cut them into quarters. Each of the larger blocks was 13.5" square before I cut them up, which was kind of a pain of a size to make, but was the right size to get the final quilt size I wanted (since I had a yard and 1/4 of backing fabric - so my final quilt was something like 39" square). I used different size center squares to start and different width strips, so that the blocks would each be different. I tried to keep in mind how the blocks would look when cut into quarters as I pieced them, so that each quarter would look good on its own. I almost chickened out and left them as whole squares, but I went ahead and cut them up.

I also considered this layout which I like too, but I ended up deciding that I liked a regular bento box layout better.

I couldn't find the little quilting table extension thing for my machine when I went to free-motion quilt this, so the quilting was a bit frustrating (and far from perfect) but it all looked fine after a good wash and dry. And the soon to be parents loved it, which is the most important thing!

I'll be linking up to Sew Modern Monday on Canoe Ridge Creations - click over to check out other modern sewing finishes!

Bee blocks and 1/4" seams

2012-02-21T22:56:00.000-08:00

After a much needed month-off (and a reprieve to turn in my December blocks late), I finished my February bee blocks for the do.good stitches love circle this past weekend. Ara Jane picked the fun Retro Flowers pattern (which Christina kindly donated for us to use for this quilt). Ara Jane asked for bright blocks in warm colors, hopefully these fit the bill! I wasn't too intimidated by the curves in this block after sewing two drunkard's path quilts, but actually matching the seams correctly was somehow tricker than I expected (and I didn't get it perfect, as you can see on my first block below). I still enjoyed the block and am happy with how they turned out, though!

One thing that I have definitely been working on with my quilting over the past year has been getting a more reliable 1/4" seam, which if you make precisely quilted blocks you will know is the key to getting things to match up well and turn out the right size. I definitely still have room for improvement but I thought that I would share a few tips including one issue that came up specifically with this block.

Earlier this year I bought this quarter inch foot (above) for my brother sewing machine. It was really cheap and definitely helped make it easier to line up the quarter inch seam with the side, but I found that it wasn't as precise as I had hoped... and it drives me kind of crazy that you have to use the center needle setting or your needle will hit the foot, and the default for my machine is a different position, so if I leave this foot on my machine, I will inevitable forget to change the stitch setting when I turn the machine on and mess up my needle. One thing that I have found that I really like to use this foot for is sewing curves. I think mostly because it helps me keep close to a 1/4" seam, but doesn't have too large a foot area and create puckers or anything.

I know that lots of folks have a 1/4" foot with a metal guard on the side to make it more exact where the fabric is supposed to line up, and maybe someday I will get one of those. In the meantime, I have been using a trick which I picked up at the sewing summit. My machine has a ton of stitches, most of which I never use, and I never understood why there were special stitches for piecing and quilting. In one of the classes at the sewing summit they set up the machines using one of the piecing settings and let us know that that positioned the needle 1/4" in from the edge of the regular foot. Wow! I have been using this setting ever since and have found it to be more reliable for getting a 1/4" seam than my special 1/4" foot. This is setting #37 on my machine, and at least if you have a brother or a babylock you probably have a similar setting. This may be old news to folks but I thought I would share in case anyone else has been in the dark on this one! (and I still haven't figured out what the special "quilting" stitches are and how they are different from regular stitches - if you know, please do share).

Actually the hardest seams for me to sew in this block were the final ones where you join the four quarters of the block together, because the pieces you are sewing are each 1/2" wide to the next seam, which at least for me meant that when I sewed a 1/4" seam with the regular needle position, my foot was getting pushed out of place (towards the fabric edge, making a smaller seam allowance), by the thicker fabric from the previously sewn seam. Maybe if I had a nicer machine this wouldn't have happened, and I could have used a walking foot but that seemed like a pain. In the end I sewed these seams with my needle all the way to the left position (position 00 on my machine) which meant only less than 1/4" of my foot was on the fabric to the left of the needle and I just did my best to keep a 1/4" seam, which wasn't perfect. Has anyone else had this problem when sewing patchwork where the finished width is 1/4" or less, and if so, I'd love to hear if you came up with a better solution!

A surprise hat and a few cowls

2012-02-08T21:55:00.000-08:00

It is a testament to how little time I have had for blogging lately that it is the second week in February and I am only just now getting around to posting about the hat that I made Lawson for Christmas. Every weekend I kept forgetting to take pictures of him wearing it, so much so that I finished another two knitting projects in the meantime... so we had a little photoshoot this weekend and now I can finally share! I knit this hat using the Knotty but nice pattern from Knitty and I love how it turned out... this was the first time I had made traveling cables like this (my term - is that what they are really called?) and it was surprisingly easier than I expected. Details of my project are on ravelry here.

The best part about this hat was that it was a surprise! I had shown Lawson the pattern and he helped pick out the yarn, but he had no idea that I was actually making it for him for Christmas, and was totally shocked when I gave it to him. Mostly I was able to knit it in carpool or when he was out of the house, but I ended up frogging it a bit because I thought it was too small, and so I was still knitting it up to the last minute whenever he would go out for an errand (or even sometimes when he was in the other room). I felt pretty sneaky!

After that, I had been really wanting to make myself a cowl, and I found this pattern (looped loop) on Ravelry and thought it would be perfect. I really love how it turned out, it has a twist in it (a full twist, not a moebius half twist), so when you wrap it around your neck twice it loops around itself perfectly and there is no twist. I didn't think I would like it as much wrapped just once, but I am finding that I also like it that way... it is super comfy and I have been wearing it all the time since I made it! Ravelry details here.

I decided to continue right on and make the honey cowl next, because I got this gorgeous, soft Manos Maxima yarn as a christmas gift and it just seemed like the perfect pattern for it. I probably should have gone up a needle size to get better drape in the fabric, but I actually like that it is pretty dense fabric and really warm. I haven't actually worn this yet since it has been pretty warm here, but it will be great for outdoor adventures or for trips back east in the winter. I wanted it to wrap around twice but still fit pretty snugly, so I used somewhat fewer stitches than the large size - I think I used 210 but I don't actually remember; Ravelry details here.

The yarn really is as soft and delicious as it looks - I think I may have to get more of this to make other projects! It reminds me a lot of Malabrigo worsted but doesn't seems as pilly, which is nice.

I actually may make myself yet another cowl - more of a single wrap/neckwarmer type - but for now I have cast on a pair of lacy socks which are pretty fun!

And I have been working on a few sewing projects too, but don't have any photos of them yet. While I am not looking forward to getting up an hour earlier, I am looking forward to daylight savings time and the possibility of it actually being light any time that I am home during the week so that I could have time to take photos!

This and That

2012-01-18T22:15:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty busy for me lately and I have a bit of a backlog of things to post about, so I thought I would throw a few different things together in a this and that update.

For our do.good stitches bee blocks this month, Rachel asked us to make a large herringbone block using her tutorial. Well actually it was for December, but luckily we decided to take the month off in January and Rachel gave us an extra few weeks to get the blocks done, which was much appreciated when I was frantically finishing up my holiday gifts. I had fun making this block and really like the fun, bright scrappy patchwork look of the color scheme she had us use - it'll be fun to see the quilt come together!

I was so thrilled to have won one of the giveaways on 2nd Avenue Studio for giveaway day (and happy to "meet" Rachel, who is a member of my guild here in Portland), and even more thrilled when this gorgeous package of Heather Ross fabrics came in the mail. I love all the cute creations I have seen other folks make with her fabrics, but other than the quilt I made with Far Far Away 2 I haven't had any of them myself. I am looking forward to some fun fussycutting in the future to show off these cuties, although I am a bit scared to cut into them!

Among many other fun craft-supply gifts that I got for the holidays (thank you friends and family, you know me well!), my mother-in-law gave me these fun vintage buttons. I am building up a bit of a button collection and love having a supply to use in future projects.

I took a t-shirt making class a few months ago (at local sewing studio, Modern Domestic) and have never gotten around to blogging about it here! I thought it would be fun to take a class to learn more tips and tricks about sewing with knits, although I felt a bit silly when I got there and realized it wasn't really different from the kids t-shirts I had sewed earlier this year.

One cool new thing that I did learn was how to make a v-neck (they showed us how to use wash-away wonder tape to hold everything in place, although it was still a bit tricky to get it to turn out nice). I also got to try out the serger which was really fun, definitely makes me want to save up and get one! And somehow I had more trouble sewing the hems with a double needle on their fancy bernina than I have had when I have done it at home. I am really happy with how my t-shirt turned out, though, and look forward to making more!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-09T22:36:00.000-08:00

OK, I know that it's more than a week into the new year... but I figured it wasn't too late to share some of my 2011 craft highlights with you all. Despite my telling myself that I am not a multiple works-in-progress kind of person, I have managed to stack up 3 unquilted quilt tops, so this mosaic includes both quilt tops and finished quilts (as well as a few other patchwork items):

1. Far far away quilt 2, 2. Central Park Quilt - Detail, 3. Rainbow Rail Quilt Finished, 4. All three yellow and grey nesting chairs pillows, 5. stacked coins quilt, 6. Drunkards Path Quilt Top, 7. Kaleidoscope Quilt Top, 8. SUTK Placemats, 9. Drunkard's Path Quilt Top

It was fun looking back through my Flickr stream at my various other crafty projects for the year - this is kind of a random potpourri of sewing and other crafts:

1. pleated pouches, 2. Jamie Dress, 3. freezer paper stencil whale t-shirt, 4. Monkey baby shoes, 5. Garden Apron Tool Belt 2, 6. Quilted Wine Tote, 7. L'illo baby sweater, 8. Watercolor valentines, 9. aqua and green patchwork clutches, 10. Box Bag 3, 11. Trillium and Ladyslipper Stained Glass, 12. purple and green socks, 13. dino and elephant applique tees, 14. Vegetable Big Butt Baby Pants, 15. Blue Peasant Dress Bodice, 16. Felt Fruit

Here's to another great year of crafting and blogging!

A Lotta Holiday

2012-01-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

Now that all the holiday presents have been gifted, I can show off some of the things I have been working on! I ended up making nearly all my sewn holiday gifts with Lotta Jansdotter's fabric line, Echo, so I'm putting all of those gifts in this post and will come back and share the others after I finish up one last (totally late) gift. It's funny, when I first saw Echo I wasn't sure if I would get any - which is crazy, since I have several of Lotta's books and love her designs. But I just wasn't sure it would play well with other fabrics and I didn't want to make a whole quilt out of it. Then when I started thinking about making holiday gifts, I decided to use it to make a few gifts... and then realized that it would be great for a number of folks on my list and ended up going back to get more fabric! Getting to use a fabric that I loved made the last minute frantic holiday sewing still feel fun, and I think everyone really liked their gifts.

I made a couple totes using my easy tote bag tutorial - the one at the top was sized up quite a bit to make a more substantial bag, while the one above was the regular size.

I also made a matching zip pouch to go with this tote, with some essex linen and a line of hand-stitching as an accent.

I think this tote bag with a reverse applique circle was my favorite sewn gift that I made - the idea of the circle with the off-kilter stitches was inspired by this bag on flickr.

The inside is lined with another Echo print and has a pocket.

Finally, I made a couple potholders, using a cut up bath towel as the inner layer rather than batting - I made a whole slew of potholders as gifts five or six years ago and that was the method I came up with at the time, it makes a nice, well-insulated potholder although the terry sheds everywhere in the process.

More essex linen on the back of this one.

Luckily I still have a bit of Echo left so I can make myself a little something too!

Lotus Hat and Mitts

2011-12-27T22:36:00.000-08:00

I actually finished my lotus hat several weeks ago, and even got Lawson to take some quick photos of me wearing it, but haven't had time to post about it with all the last minute holiday gift-making around here (more on that soon). I am really happy with how the hat turned out, the yarn (Knit Picks Capra) is so soft and comfy with the cashmere - not at all itchy. As I mentioned before, I ended up having to do more repeats than the pattern called for to get it long enough, so the pattern is a bit smaller scale than as written in the pattern, but I love how it looks, and now it is long enough to cover my ears, which is key.

I love the cool pattern the stitches make as they come together at the top of the hat - the charted pattern is really clear and turns out great.

I had bought 2 skeins of yarn and the hat used just a bit more than one, so I was thrilled that I had enough to knit up a matching pair of mitts! I modified a basic fingerless mitts pattern using the stitch pattern from the hat and also making them longer and adding ribbing at all the edges.

Since I finished these up, I have been continuing to knit away - I just finished a hat for Lawson and gave it to him for Christmas, so I'll be sure to show you that once I get a picture of him in it. And I just cast on for this cowl/infinity scarf for myself in a grey gloss DK (also lovely and soft) - it is knitting up pretty quickly, I can't wait to finish it up and get to wear it!

Giveaway Winner and Ornament Ideas

2011-12-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my giveaway! I had so much fun reading about handmade ornaments you have made or ideas you would like to make - definitely got me inspired. I actually got inspired and made some ornaments myself (even though I should have been sewing holiday gifts...) - more on that below. First, the winner!

Congratulations, JuneBug! I've emailed you to find out which pattern you would like.

If you didn't win but wanted to get a pattern, they are available in my meylah shop (with instant downloads!) and in my etsy shop :).

So, here are some photos of the quick ornaments I made:

To make these, I glued together two sheets of lightweight scrapbook paper to get a heavier weight paper with patterns on both sides, then cut strips and made them into various shapes. The middle ornament was inspired by a felt ornament in fa la la la felt, and I think the top one (and other similar sphere ones I made) was subconciously inspired by this ornament that I had seen probably last year. The glueing together two sheets of scrapbook paper wasn't ideal, really, and the paper puckered a bit on some of the ornaments I made but overall I was happy with most of the ones I made. I used perle cotton to sew knots and hold them together, and to make the hanging loops. I actually think these would be even better if you used fusible web to fuse together two pieces of fabric and then cut strips of that to work with, I may try to do that at some point.

Since you all were so nice to share your inspiration, I thought that I would share the ornament ideas that I have been feeling inspired by lately:

Paper flower ornament
Spiky paper starburst ornament
Paper ball ornament made from circles
Felt snow ball ornaments
Another felt ball ornament
String ball ornament
Water marbled glass ornament

And here are some great lists/roundups/sources for more ideas:

How About Orange (you may have noticed I love her ornaments!)
Martha Stewart Crafts
Craftzine
Pink Chalk Studios round-up
Stumbles and Stitches Christmas in July (includes several free patterns from Fa la la la felt)

Hope you all have a great holidays!! I may be back before then with a blog post, but I may be too busy finishing up making the last of my gifts (and possibly getting distracted making more fun ornaments).

Giveaway Day!

2011-12-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

I've had so much fun participating in Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day in the past, both as a giver-away and as a winner, so I'm excited to participate again this time!

I'll be giving away a copy of one of my PDF sewing patterns (also for sale in my meylah shop and my etsy shop) - the winner can choose:

Either the yoga mat bag sewing pattern -

(check out how it has a zipper up the front AND a zippered pocket for your essentials... sweet!)

OR a copy of my free-motion applique messenger bag pattern

(Two fun applique designs included, and the bag has lots of handy pockets)

To enter, all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me - what kind of handmade ornaments have you made or would you like to make? (This is actually for a purpose - my coworker told me she wanted to make handmade ornaments and was looking for ideas - I had a bunch but would love to pass on yours as well! Links to tutorials are welcome).

The winner will be picked at random, and the giveaway is open to both U.S. and international entries. The giveaway will close at 5 pm pacific on Friday December 16th and I will contact the winner via email - so make sure you have an email address in your blogger profile, or include it in your comment!

Thanks and good luck!

--GIVEAWAY CLOSED!-- Thanks to all who entered! Winner's posted here.

Drunkard's Path QAL - Winners!

2011-12-05T19:40:00.001-08:00

Thanks to everyone who joined in our QAL and thanks to Kristie for being an awesome partner in crime (er, curves)! I loved seeing all your quilt tops (and finished quilts - you guys are way more on top of this than I am!) - if you didn't see them yet, check out all the links here.

Thanks again to our lovely sponsors who donated the prizes... now it's time to draw our winners!

The winner of the fat quarter bundle of Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric donated by The Fabric Shoppe is:

Alli at B. Yazoo, and...

The winner of the $40 gift certificate from Fresh Squeezed Fabrics is:

Beth at Sewing for Sanity!

Yay, congrats to both of you! We'll be in touch to get you your prizes.

{This post is part of the Drunkard's Path Quilt-Along that I am hosting with Kristie from OCD. Check out my Drunkard's Path QAL page for the schedule and links to the posts so far, and feel free to join in any time!}

Asterisk Bee Blocks and tips

2011-12-04T22:14:00.001-08:00

For last month's do.good stitches blocks for the Love circle, Lee from Freshly Pieced asked us all to make asterisk blocks in pinks, oranges, greys and whites - what a lovely winter palette! She directed us to this tutorial for the basics of how to make an asterisk block, but gave us free rein to play around with the blocks as long as they had one or more asterisk in them. I love these kinds of structured creative challenges so these were fun blocks to put together!

I made a smaller asterisk for one of my blocks and used it as the center of an improvisational log cabin block, which was really fun to make!

For my other block, I wanted to make a wonky/off-center asterisk with thicker fabric strips than the original tutorial called for. I didn't go much thicker, I used 1.5" strips (1" finished), rather than the 1" strips/0.5" finished that the tutorial called for. I wanted to share a quick tip for how to keep your asterisk strips aligned when using a wider strip. I imagine others have figured this out and may have blogged about it elsewhere, but I thought I would share in case this is helpful to anyone!

The original tutorial is great because it uses 1" strips of fabric, which means that when you cut the fabric and then insert the pieced strip, the 1/2" of the original quilt square eaten up by the two seam allowances is exactly replaced by the 1/2" of strip that shows on the top after it also loses 1/2" to seam allowances. So everything stays well aligned.

You may have seen asterisk blocks where the strips get kind of misaligned... I cut my in progress block and pulled it apart about 1/2" to show how this can happen - this is about how far apart the two sides would be if I had just cut it and then pieced in my 1.5" strip. It's not too extreme with such a small misalignment, but you can see that each of the diagonal strips kind of jumps across the divide rather than being a straight line. This problem would be more extreme and much more noticeable when using even wider strips, since the two pieces of the quilt block would be getting moved even farther apart.

The solution is simply to cut a strip out of the block where you are going to add the pieced strip. To figure out how wide a strip to cut out, you just subtract 1" from the size strip you are piecing in, to account for the 1/2" in seam allowances eaten up from each of the background and the strip you add. So, for my block, I cut out a 1/2" strip, since I was using 1.5" strips. I only did this for the final strip that I added, but in looking at it and thinking it through, I think I really should have done it for the final two (eg, the straight up and down segments, not the diagonal segments). You could do it for every strip you add, but it's definitely not necessary for the first one (nothing to line up yet) and for the second one, you can eyeball it to keep it lined up. I think my block turned out fine even though I only did this for the last strip, since I was not piecing with super thick strips, but I will remember to do it for both of the last two next time.

I definitely recommend the asterisk block if you have never made one before - they are really quick and fun to make!