WIP Wednesday: Back to School is Cramping My Style

I am back to work (as a teacher I have July and August off so I have more sewing time) and it has meant a real slow down in progress.

Here is what I am working on:
1. I have my Christmas Tree quilt top finished. I need to piece the backing and then baste and quilt it.

2. My #QBTravellingquilt exchange is set for September 16 which is also the first meeting of the West End Modern Quilt Guild- my first ever guild! It is brand new. I will let you know how it goes! I have a round this time with my friend C's quilt. I will only show you a sneak peek until she sees it in person.

Cutting through an Ex Libris panel is PAINFUL.

Marlowe does a good job keeping an eye on things.

3. I also basted my Snail Along Quilt (named Molasses) and have it ready to quilt when the opportunity next turns up.

4.  In addition I have been working away on both a quilt and a pillow for a new baby arriving in November to a very close friend. (The new baby's big sister is my goddaughter). This pattern from 3rd Story Workshop will be turned into a pillow for baby's nursery. Isn't it precious?

Now if only I didn't have to do things like feed my children or do all my school work!

#QBtravellingquilt and One More Shop Hop

The #QBtravellingquilt continues. I finished my addition to A's quilt by using From Blank Pages' pattern My First Alphabet (this is the 3" size). I also, as per our challenge, used a new skill which was layered applique with free motion black outlines (say what??! I did applique??).

I love the result and she seemed to like it. Her quilt is colourful while still being quite soft-looking. The other two quilts are sooooo saturated by comparison but they all look amazing. I wish I had taken a picture of what my quilt looks like after C added some EPP stars (EPP!!!).

So pretty, isn't it?

 With my QB peeps we decided to go on a Toronto shop hop since our July shop hop took us West. We went to four stores: Sew Sisters, EweKnit, The Workroom and Len's Mill Toronto. I had never been to that Len's Mill and I loved it. Great selection, better organized than the Guelph location I usually go to and I found several yummy purchases. Plus the woman cutting our fabric was chatting with us and totally our kind of person. We invited her to come to lunch with us but she thought perhaps her boss would disapprove.

I only took pictures at The Workroom because it is in the new location and I had not yet been there. But I also had to take a picture of this graffiti mural right next The Workroom because it was just so good.

There's lots you can interpret from Make Good.

One angle of the new space.

More of the new space.

The Workroom is not my favourite, mostly because of their very high prices (most fabric is $19.99/m) but the space sure is beautiful! I found some fabrics that I liked and splurged. 

The end result of the trip was a lot of fabric- mostly reds because I needed a ton more reds to make a pineapple quilt for my mother-in-law for her new house (look for a future post on how that is going). There is a healthy amount of Alison Glass (from Len Mills) and that bottom fabric is an old Valorie Wells fabric I got at Sew Sisters that was in the extreme discount bin ($4.99/m). It is not my colour BUT it is perfect for the colours my MIL wants in her quilt, the fabric works well in terms of scale and the pattern sort of looks like fronds which works for pineapples and it was CHEAP. Sold. They only had 3 3/4m and I technically need 4 3/8m but I will piece something together to fill it out!

It was a great trip with wonderful friends and the high will have to last some time because C and I are going on a fabric fast from September 1- December 31. Note that the rules are:
1) No new fabric purchases from September 1-December 31.
2) Using gift cards doesn't count.
3) You can make one preorder of a must-have fabric.
4) You can purchase one pattern during that time if desired.

I'm sure we can do it. Especially because we both preordered a TON of new fabric from Dinkydoo fabrics that should be coming every day. Like, I need a new fabric shelf ton of fabric. :)

Sweet Pepper Jelly: A Finished Quilt

Way back in 2013 I subscribed to the Sugar Block Club with Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock. I was still relatively new to quilting and thought it would be a good skill builder. And it was! I used a blogger bundle of fabric from Rita of Red Pepper Quilts (at the time she was one of my favourite bloggers; as of late my taste has diverged significantly though I still admire her skill!) as well as a few prints from my own stash (that I might not even buy today!).

It was my first attempt at paper piecing (I believe four of twelve blocks require paper piecing) and I was not so great at it. And all my blocks ended up slightly different sizes ranging from 10.5" to 12". I saw no way out, at the time, to putting it together into a quilt top. And so it languished.

I would say it was my first ever true WIP, and I am not someone to let things go unfinished. It has been nagging at me for years to finish it. This was the summer!

I put away my reservations, embraced "Finished is better than perfect" and got to work.

And here is Sweet Pepper Jelly, a quilt with many imperfections (and that includes the quilting) but which is DONE and will now be our "out and about" quilt that stays in the car for picnics, chilly mornings or general quilt needs.

A sampler quilt, in an odd mix of fabrics, but DONE!

I did loopy swirls in all the borders and tried something different with each block, to varying degrees of success.

The back is this infamous IKEA print, picked up and stored for the last three years with this exact quilt in mind. It is much lighter weight than quilt shop quilting cotton but it sure packs some visual punch! This was my first scrappy binding, made in 2013 and not attached until mid-2016. I love how it works for this quilt.

You get a bit of a sense of the different quilting looking at the back like this.

It feels so good to have this quilt DONE. Only one more WIP sits languishing in my closet now...my Aviatrix Medallion which I am not prepared to tackle again right now!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Tumbi: A Finished Quilt

I have a new nephew arriving before the end of March and he has an elephant themed nursery. When I heard this I thought of making a paper pieced elephant. Fresh off my success with the butterfly I made using the Take Wing pattern, I jumped in and bought the Elephant pattern from Tartan Kiwi. The pattern was not as well written as the Take Wing pattern, and thank goodness I was fresh off another paper piecing project so I could troubleshoot. I still had to pull out some seams and come up with some creative solutions, but the end result is one dapper elephant!

He is two feet by two feet (so, HUGE!) and I bordered him on either side using the free tutorial for Rectangles Squared by Film in the Fridge. My sister-in-law was not decided if she wanted navy or teal or turquoise as the accent colour along with the grey in the nursery, so I used all of them and knew it would all look good together! She has not seen this quilt or pattern, and even on Instagram I have been doing "secret sewing" so it will remain a surprise. (She doesn't read my blog). I can't wait to meet my new nephew and gift him his elephant quilt!

I named it Tumbi, a Tamil word for elephant.

This quilt is actually quite large for a baby quilt, probably more of a crib or lap quilt. I hope it gets lots of tummy time use.

All of these fabrics were from my stash. Hooray for that! The inevitable Pearl Bracelets from Lizzy House, some subtle Tula (who knew that existed?) from her Fox Field line, Cotton+Steel and some other ones that have been floating around for awhile just waiting for a project like this! The binding is Art Gallery Squared Elements in a dark grey that I had from another project. It was ideal for this quilt!

I added this organic straight-ish line quilting so it looked like the elephant was walking around on a hilly landscape. I'm not sure if that it the effect, but I like it none the less.

The back is all one print, which my husband loves but is not my favourite. I think my sister-in-law will prefer it, though, and I had lots of this print so I went for it.

I bought this on clearance some time ago and don't remember who made it, but I do know this colour is "blueberry" because I thought that was a fun name for this blue.

I also have a stack of flannel baby blankets ready for him. My sister-in-law is 38 weeks pregnant, so anytime now would be great since baby is cooked!

I hope she really loves this quilt and appreciates all the work that went into that sweet (giant) elephant!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday!
Also linking up with TGIFF over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge with my bloggy friend Jenn!

Paper Piecing on a Sunday

This past Sunday I got some actual solid sewing time in and I used it to tackle the Take Wing pattern from Lilly Ella. I have seen the pattern all over Instagram and I think it is so stunning. My goddaughter has a pink and grey butterfly-themed bedroom (she's two) and so I was determined to try to make her a butterfly as part of her Christmas present.

As with any time I get into paper piecing, I first reviewed the paper piecing instructions from Stitchery Dickory Dock on Craftsy. This helped me brush up on the techniques because I don't do it very often.

If you have never done it before, paper piecing is time consuming and very messy. During the process it looks like a very cool hot mess, as captured below:

One wing starts shaping up.

This is the body of the butterfly as the very beginning.

My favourite ruler to use during paper piecing is my 4" by 14" Omnigrid. I first used this size of ruler at my friend A's house and bought one the same month. When you are moving from one section to another, you begin by trimming to a 1/4" edge. It is very satisfying to cut away all these bits.

The trimming is satisfying but messy.

Here is a shot of a trimmed versus an untrimmed wing.

Trimmed on the right, untrimmed on the left. A hot mess turns into something you can actually recognize!

I got really excited when I got to this point because I could see the butterfly emerging.

Wings BD and Body ABC. The thing is, I had the more complicated wings still to do. I was determined to finish.

I had a very few issues, but right away in the last two wings I made a mistake on both wings (because I did the same section of each wing back to back to ensure symmetry) by not using a long enough piece of fabric. This involved some VERY delicate seam ripping, because it ripped the paper too which is NOT good in paper piecing.

Yikes. I had to tear our those pink triangles.

I thought the wings looked super cool as they came together. There are 27 pieces in each Wing for A and C and each precise triangle is quite small.

I alternated between pink and grey, mostly from scraps.

I was SO excited to get all the sections pieced but I was also nervous about putting it all together because of the points. The pattern comes with tips as to how to best attach the wings. 

The impact of a mismatched seam would be significant.

By the way, I mentioned that paper piecing is messy. Check out just a few of the piles of bits from around my sewing room:

Trimming and picking through the bits.

More rifling through bits.

I had really good success with my points, actually. I very carefully pinned and sewed. I was very happy with the results:

Point on either side of the "head" of the butterfly.

Nice precise matching on the edges of the wings too.

The satisfying but finicky part of paper piecing is removing all that darn paper. It takes a gentle touch to avoid distorting the seams.

Removing the paper.

The paper itself leaves a mess too. I need to do a good vacuuming in there.

Paper carnage.

And, finally, here is the end result!

I love it! I hope my goddaughter does too!

I think I am going to frame it, rather than make it into a pillow or a quilt. I think it will look really great in her bedroom...hopefully her mom agrees!

Now I need to tackle my daughter's modern I-Spy quilt for her second birthday which is in January. 

Hooray for the Take Wing pattern!

Tardis Pillow: Always Learning

So I made a tardis pillow. A tardis, for those non-Whovians, is Doctor Who's space ship. Space/time ship? Whatever. It is a police box from Britain and Trillium Quilts put together a HUGE paper pieced Doctor Who-themed quilt for her son and shared her patterns free on Craftsy. Brilliant, generous woman.

It came together much easier than I could have hoped, especially since I am not a paper piecing fan. Except I was disappointed that the curve of the pillow distorts the shape of the tardis and ruins the 3D look. It works better as a flat quilt block, I think.

I like the fabric I chose for the timey-wimey-outerspace- a Tula Pink print.

I used a tone on tone Pearl Bracelet print in dark grey for the back.

All those tiny seams look so much more impressive from the back!

I wasn't 100% thrilled with the end result. My hubby said it looked great and was sure his coworker would love it (it was a thank you gift for lending us all of his Doctor Who DVDs). The coworker did love it so that is a win. And here are some things I learned for in the future:

• paper piecing can be totally worth it
• some blocks don't work well for pillows because of the curvature of the pillow
• use dark thread when piecing dark fabric to dark fabric, otherwise any stretch to the seam shows the light coloured thread- my laziness about switching out thread bit me in the butt on this one
• careful pinning with tiny pins is key, but pinning it from the front while looking how it will fit together is even better (I got that tip from my quilty friend C)

And I will paper piece again. But only if the outcome will be really worth it to me!

Lynn

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Up Friday!

Tardis Insanity

My husband and I love to watch TV shows together. He introduces me to so many shows I would never watch...Firefly, for example, or Game of Thrones...and we get to be geeky together. This was definitely the case for Doctor Who, a show I've heard about forever but never had any interest in watching.

Then my hubby brought home season one (of the reboot, not the 1960s version) and we began our marathon of Doctor Who. We've watched right up the present except for the two specials (Whovians will understand what I mean) and we're hooked.

To thank the guy who let us borrow his DVDs (a friend of my husband's from work) I came up with the idea of making him a Tardis pillow. I found one by Trillium Designs that was free on Craftsy. She made the most incredible paper pieced Doctor Who quilt for her son. It is huge and a ridiculous amount of work. I thought I could do one block as a pillow.

Here is that block.

Each one of those letters and numbers corresponds to a teeny tiny piece of fabric.

It should end up looking something like this. This was Trillium Designs' block in her son's quilt. Genius.

I have the fabric picked (Kona Navy and Kona Prussian for the Tardis, White Architextures Sketch fabric for the windows, some scraps of Reunion for the sign, some Kona Black and a scrap of yellow from Madrona Road).

100000000 pieces. Ack.

I don't know what I'm thinking. I don't like paper piecing nor am I particularly good at it. But if I can pull it off won't it be AMAZING?

My husband approved all my fabric choices except one. We had a disagreement about the background fabric. I thought it should be super crazy and colourful like the space time clouds that The Doctor is always flying through but hubby wasn't sure. He thought about it for a bit and then deferred to my choice.

Doesn't this just scream Space/Time cloud to you?

Wish me luck. I figure I'll do it a bit at a time. I need to have it done by the second week of August. Ummm, here's hoping?

Lynn

Paper Piecing Take Two

I signed up for the Sugar Block Club run by Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock last year in the hopes that it would build my skill level in the way that In Color Order's (Jeni Baker) HST Quilt Along helped me build my skills in 2012.

I was right. It built serious skills. I used a bundle curated by Red Pepper Quilts with some additions from my stash and got to work each month. I fell behind in the spring and caught up again in the summer, only to completely stop when the fall got really busy.

Truth is, there was something else stopping me from finishing these blocks. And considering we're almost in month five of 2014, I know I need to get with it and finish this project.

See, three of the blocks involve paper piecing. It was something I had never done before and wanted to try. My first attempt was disappointing and frustrating. The piecing wasn't bad until I had to attach the pieces to get crisp points. After three attempts I pretty much gave up. 

Back in the saddle again! I've tackled the October block first because it is only partially paper pieced. I got lots of tips from quilty friends A and C and I dove in.

Templates cut, fabric picked and cut to size. Deep breaths.

I stitched using a 1.4 length stitch. It seemed to be the perfect length for paper piecing.

The points came out great. Now time to attach it to the non-paper pieced centre.

Ta da! Not too shabby! The points are very pointy and I didn't want to cry.

Next up I will tackle the two remaining blocks and then I can get to sashing and finishing this quilt. I'm thrilled!

How do you feel about paper piecing?

Lynn