During (with the slip cover my mother made for it, before it came to live at our house):

And after:

This another project I did with my Sewing for Your Home e-course students, working on making a template by draping a piece of furniture, and then creating a slip cover from the template.  I love, love, love this ikat print, and am so pleased with the new slip cover.  The greens really bounce off the wall color, and I think it makes the whole shape so much cooler.

I didn’t dislike the original cover, actually, the upholstery, I mean.  I love a good mustardy acid green, myself.  But this wall color moves between lime-ish and spring-y and jade depending on the light, and the yellowish of the original didn’t play nicely.  Plus, it was filthy and ratty–am pretty sure this was another of my mom’s curb-side finds that she brought home.

The fabric is a fantastic 50s-style bark cloth with such a nice texture, but it’ 100% cotton, so it’s soft and lovely to touch.  The ikat is understated and not trying too hard, which tends to be my mantra in design–I like cool and chic, but not trendy or over-the-top.  I want my things to be timeless so I don’t have to do them all over any time soon.

I’m really pleased with how the shape and the fabric work in our living room, alongside the wall unit and the blues-and-greens soothingness we have working in there.  I’m still hunting for the perfect Whipstitch yellow fabric for the sofa–I found one that’s a herringbone weave that might be a winner, but I’ll have to feel a swatch before I’ll know for sure.

I still want to tweak just a bit to get the cover slightly snugger, and might add a small shaped pillow at the seat back, but other than that, I think this was a giant step in the right direction!  Hooray for slip covers!

I’ve also got a guest post over at Plum and June’s Advice for New Bloggers series–check it out, and join her blog hop for new quilt bloggers going on right now!  Lots of great tutorials and guest posts, along with events and linky goodness.  Beth has done a great job of getting new bloggers to meet and share with one another–I’m flattered to have been included!

Congratulations to Fern who wins a copy of the Pinafore pattern!  Fern, I will contact you via email so you can collect your loot.  Fern said:

Thanks to everyone for entering, and have a super happy Memorial Day!

I saw this fantastic acorn fabric months ago and ordered a half yard bundle near-instantly, what with my long-standing love-affair with all things acorn.  Actually, this is the SECOND bundle I ordered, since the first went to my old home address and the dude who bought our house refuses to forward our mail OR ship it back to the sender, and now has three half-yard bundles, an art print and a trivet shaped like a button that shipped from Germany that don’t belong to him, all ordered before I remembered to update my PayPal address–but I digress.  The main print with the sweet houses and squirrels is precious, and I got four yards of the acorn print because yes.

It has been sitting on the shelf since I got it, waiting for me to have an idea of how to use it all.  I knew I didn’t want to cut up the super cute squirrel village print, and I’ve been toying with the idea of a large-scale pieced front: mostly fat quarters or half yards all stuck together, similar to how I’ve done some of my favorite quilt backs.  This seemed like a good chance, and since the shipment of fabric I was waiting on to work on another project hadn’t arrived, I had some time to kill.  So why not play a bit?

I began by just laying out half yard chunks, planning to stitch them to one another and leave them nearly whole.  But it was lots of big pieces, and there wasn’t any variety in the sizing, which I like to see.  So I figured I’d make a few strip-pieced sections and match them up with some larger chunks, like the houses, which I knew I wouldn’t cut up.  Maybe I should call this “Organic Acorns,” since I don’t usually do a ton of organic or improvisational piecing…

Some of the strips are horizontal–the ones in the upper right corner–and some are vertical (in the left, above), and I worked to keep the one-way prints running the same direction with all of them.  Then I married the chunks with strips to larger pieces, trimmed them to length, and made four large sections that each run horizontally, right to left.  Anytime a piece of fabric wasn’t long enough or wide enough, I just tossed in another small strip until it was the size I needed.  It was really fun, actually, to not have a plan and to just pick up a print and chop off a bit and add it into the mix.

The zigzag was a little bit of an accident: I had a large section to fill at the bottom, and didn’t want to do more strips like I’d done above.  I didn’t want one large piece, either, since I felt the design needed some balance.  So the HST zigzag came out, and I totally love it.  To a certain degree, I think it makes the quilt, and seems like a leftover block from another project that got stitched in at the end–but in a good way.

I’m still deciding how to quilt this, but I suspect it will be some kind of organic cross-hatch pattern with my walking foot.  And no, this won’t be given away or shared with anyone–it’s ALL MINE.  The backing is yards and yards of the acorn print, and I love every scrap of it.  Plus, I think that someday, when my basement studio is all done, this will be spectacular for sitting on the cushion I plan to put on top of the under-window bookcases for sewing and reading.

Can’t you just feel the breeze when you look at it?  I really love the results.  Anyone have opinions for a name?  I’ve never bothered to give my quilts a name beyond the fabric collection I used to create them or the name of the block design, but I think this one really demands it.  Suggestions welcome!

Psst!  If you haven’t seen it already, there’s a giveaway through Sunday over at Film in the Fridge for a spot in my Essential Quilting class!  I’d really love to have you join us and get your quilt on this June.  Enter the giveaway or register today before it’s all filled up!

I had a selection of fabrics from which to choose, some that I loved more than others, and a couple that were clear front-runners.  They are all home dec-weight fabrics, since I want them to stand up to the abuse that a bar chair overlooking the main cooking area in our house is bound to get.  My husband had one favorite, so that’s what got picked.

These chairs are the Ikea Henricksdal, so lots of people had them.  We got the white covers for the two that were in my studio at the last house, and the leather covers for the two that were in our finished basement.  The leather ones are still downstairs, waiting for the basement to get finished at this new house, and the studio isn’t ready, so the studio chairs are going to live in the den from now on.  The white covers, though, were disgusting–I mean, really, just foul.

I don’t know how many of the stains you can see in that before, but they. are. there.  It looks so much nicer and fresher with the new color and the crisp, CLEAN fabric!

Plus, it really was simple to stitch up.  I cut apart the old cover to use as a template, since it clearly couldn’t be saved, and harvested the Velcro from that to use on this one.  From there, it was just a matter of copying what had already been done!  I skipped a lot of the reinforcing stitches that Ikea used on the original, which I might live to regret, but I kept the funny little hidden gusset they have in the back of the seat, to allow for human weight without stretching the fabric and stressing it too much.  And I’m pretty proud of how cleanly even the corners came together:

Using the existing slip cover as a template meant that the pieces all fit really well, and having the Velcro on the bottom helped snug everything up so that even the back is super smooth–which matters, since you see the full back from the den side of the bar.

I’m still working on my husband to see if I can convince him that not all the stools have to have the same fabric–and to let me cover one or two of the other ones (there are three total) in the fabric that was my favorite (and his least favorite, as luck would have it):

I really love the green he chose, and it was neck-and-neck with the zigzags as far as I was concerned, but the colors in this ikat match the colors in the Lizzie House fabric I picked for the curtains SO perfectly:

You’ll have to ignore the remnants of country blue in the background here and focus on the Lizzie fabric and the wall colors and how perfect the ikat zigzag stripe is with them both.  Here’s hoping he doesn’t hate the idea–I think it’ll add some enormous punch to this room, plus I have this sweet little candlestick side table that would be fabulous in that particular shade of mango-persimmon, and a great print with the same color in little lozenges on a cream background that wants very badly to be a floor pillow.  One project at a time, y’all!

When was the last time you had to make a color or fabric design decision with your spouse?  Do you go halvsies and each take turns, or what?  Because I think his exact words were, “I really don’t like THIS one,” which made me think there isn’t much hope…

I recently asked my local Atlanta bee babes to make me the Retro Flowers block for my turn in the bee.  I made this sample before our meeting and am thinking it’ll make a fabulous pillow for the den–the green is exactly the same shade, and the deeper blues mimic the color I’ll be painting the coffee table.

We’ve also sort of accidentally fallen into making lots of stuff from Denyse Schmidt’s new book:

I can’t remember the last book of projects where I really, sincerely wanted to make nearly every design in the book–but I really feel that way about this one.  We already made the Orange Peel blocks in cactus and navy for Kim:

These are all needle-turn applique, and they are a ton of fun.  Just put some Dr Who on the old Netflix, fire up your hand sewing needle, and you’ve got really luxurious looking blocks in no time.

We’re also working on, for this month’s bee “block,” rows for Lightning Streak for Emily:

She’s chosen the orange prints from Summersville and a perfectly delicious sketchy print for the background.  Plus: hello, half-square triangle!  You make me happy when skies are grey.

In the Trust circle of do.Good Stitches, we’re doing a Flying Geese quilt this month, and could choose any Flying Geese block we wanted.  I used the Fat Quarterly tutorial from Jennie Finch Schnauer, and love the result:

These are my first flying geese, if you can believe it, and I am smitten.  Smitten, I tell you–what a fun shape to work with, and so many variations possible!  It was working on this that made me think of the Ocean Waves quilt in Denyse’s book, which I had sticky-note marked to make down the road:

I sort-of think Flying Geese are going to be the next Half-Square Triangle quilt rage–you heard it here first.

It’s perfect on its own, over shorts, over pants, over a tee, going to and from the pool, heading to dinner at Gramma’s, in any fabric you can think of and for any little girl (even the ones who swear they don’t like dresses).  You can add ruffles, pockets, trim, applique or stencils to make every version totally unique–when our little ones wear these to school, sometimes they’ll rock out three days in a row in the same style of pinafore, but no one ever knows because they all look so different!

To win a copy of this pattern, which will be delivered to you via digital download, just LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST.  Giveaway is open through May 25, 2012 at 10 pm Eastern.  Winner will be chosen and announced randomly on Memorial Day, May 28, 2012!  Any and all nationalities can enter!

For more details and photos of the Pinafore, check out the pattern page!

But!  I am woman!  And so, in an effort primarily to do something nice for my husband, I unpacked TWO–count ‘em, TWO!–boxes the other day while he was taking the children to the library, God bless him.  One included photos in frames, meant to be hung on the walls of the hallway (which I did–pics to follow) and the other was clothing for our girls that I’d been saving.  I thought most of it was stuff I’d kept from our eldest to pass along to our five-year-old, but there was a whole mess in there that had belonged to the five-year-old that I had apparently saved for the baby.

And now look at her:

I made this ages and ages ago, back maybe even before I started selling fabric retail.  It’s the Pinafore pattern, along with a shorts version of the Perfect Pants pattern I teach in my Sewing Clothing for Kids e-course, and the prints from Jay McCarroll’s very first fabric line.  This must be a solid four+ years old.

I love this feeling, that I’ve invested my time into something that will not only last, but that will surprise me with pleasure and satisfaction when I least expect it.  Today was the little one’s last day of school for the year (!!), and I wanted to dress her in something pretty for the photos at the end of the day.  I felt like the best mother in the world when I put this on her this morning.  And it’s not too bad this afternoon, either.

Hooray for handmade!  Have a happy weekend, everyone.

(After enough episodes, you’ll actually start thinking in a British accent.  Try it–you’ll see I’m right.)

I had known of Dr. Who back in the day, when it originally aired, but never watched it for one reason or another.  When these new series came out, I watched chunks of one with my oldest, the Amy Pond seasons.  But it wasn’t until I started at the beginning of these newer episodes that I really, truly got hooked.

Fair warning: everything beyond this point is unabashed geekery.  Feel free to run away if you’d like and I’ll see you tomorrow with something less dorky.  Mostly.

On a whim today, I did a search for “TARDIS QUILT,” mostly because I was thinking how cool it would be to have a quilt that’s also the TARDIS.  As I did my Googling, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was not the first to have this idea.  I was not disappointed.

Behold, my friends: the vast array of TARDIS quilts in the universe.  Time Lord, you are no longer alone.

From Wendymoon (a long-time blog friend in these parts–hello, Wendy!).

Maybe my favorite, this mini-quilt version from gatheredthreads, via Mr X Stitch

From Crafty_Tardis (this one comes with a sonic screwdriver pillow)

From SewHooked, along with link to the pattern she used.

There is, of course, a whole world of Dr Who crafty patterns and ideas.  I’m waiting for the Rose Tyler quilt, because as much as I love Amy Pond, Rose was something special.  You geeks know what I’m talking about.

Welcome to the mania, people.  I quote the Bloggess:

The spiky free-motion quilted project I mentioned last week is complete!  And just in time for a rainy, rainy day.

This is another 1600 quilt, like the Domestic Bliss one I made earlier this spring, but I actually completed this quilt top first, at our Winter Sewing Retreat.  So I think this one is probably a smidge smaller than the Domestic Bliss, primarily because as I was sewing the long seams on this one, the strips got a little twisted and I may have been more enthusiastic than I needed to be as I was hacking cutting the ends.  Still: lovely.  The keen of eye will notice that the strips go all the way from one side to the other here–I didn’t cut off the first 18″ at the end of the first strip, and clearly that makes a giant impact.  The colors here are what makes it fun, though.  It’s a Silent Film jelly roll from Robert Kaufman, all the greys and blacks and sort-of-not-quite-whites from their Kona cottons.

The back is all Kona cerise, with a chunk of grey dots that I randomly found in my stash.  This color really is so perfect–I have to thank Diana at the shop for giving me the idea, especially since it’s going to be smashing with the hot pink four-poster in our teen’s room.  She doesn’t know this is going to be hers yet, which actually made asking her to stand out in the rain holding it up a little bit funny. To me, anyway.  Is that wrong?

One of the many great things about these jelly roll quilts is that they’re such a breeze to stitch up that I don’t mind using them to experiment with my quilting stitches a bit.  I really like the idea of marrying the quilt design to the patchwork design, but I think the temptation to just use a meandering free-motion stitch or a straight-line stitch with every quilt is pretty strong.  So I’m trying to push myself more to be thoughtful about which quilting designs I use and how those interact with the quilt top to make a pleasing whole.  I’m certainly not all the way there yet, but having some larger projects where I feel like I can play a bit with the quilting stitches but won’t feel as though I’ve “ruined” it if I don’t love the quilting design is helping me learn better what effect the quilting can have on the quilt as a whole–a gestalt, if you will.

This spiky pattern seemed like such a cool way to off-set the black-and-grey-ness of the jelly roll, and I cannot get over how much I love it in the cerise thread across the body of the quilt.  I liked it OK before, when it was just the quilt top–I mean, the greys were pretty cool, and kinda chic.  But once the stitch pattern started to assert itself and really POP against the background of these colors, I loooooved the whole quilt so much more. And that’s what I think I’m reaching for: getting to where I feel as though the quilting step isn’t just a trial to be gotten through so that I can enjoy the fabric or the patchwork, but that it’s an integral and exciting part of the process of creating a quilt, and that each of the bits stands alone PLUS working together to make a cohesive and alluring finished product.

Along those same lines, the binding here isn’t the solid cerise I’d been planning, but is a bit of Anna Maria‘s Loulouthi that I’d been hoarding.  And I’m over the hoarding–use ALL the fabric, I say!  I like that it doesn’t quite perfectly match, that it’s unexpected, and that it really adds something soft and comforting to the colors of the quilt top.

Off to run this through the dryer and then snuggle under it while it’s still warm.  Hope your garden is getting the rain it needs!