Weekend Sewing

I started a new quilt top last night.  This lovely line of fabrics, was given to me by my dear friend, Christine Adolph (http://christineadolph.typepad.com/).  Its called Vintage Butterflies, and I love it.  Its hard to believe that she gave me this strip bundle 2 years ago this month.  I've cheated myself really, by not playing with it sooner.  The more my hands work with it the more my eyes enjoy its color pallet and images.  Its eye candy!

The mix of subtle pastels in lavender, mint, yellow and pink have pops of bright butterflies and water-color flowers in fusia, royal blue, and Turquoise.  Sadly this line is OOP (out of print), but I have seen a few remnants pop up on Etsy and Ebay recently, if you want to get your hands on some.  

This is my second post using the 'Blogger' App for iPad and I cant quite figure out how to add a hyperlink to text or photo.  Sorry for that.

Anyway, back to stitching:D

Lindsay

Free Find & Progress

Isn't cute?!  I found it out front of a neighbor's house.  Funny too, cause I was just admiring the return of this American classic in the latest Crate & Barrel catalog.  This one is an Ikea acrylic version, but who cares?  Its aqua and its mine!  

Last night I finished a little dresden cushion for the seat.  So comfy at my sewing desk.

Last week my MacBook Pro took a dive, so while my hubby is operating on it, I'm trying out the Blogger app for iPad.  Hope this post formats properly.  We shall see ;)

Above is the progress of my FMF Herringbone quilt all laid out.  Next I'll be sewing the rows together.  Going from machine to the pressing board and back again is a bit taxing, so I try to work in stages.  

Sad to say, now that its all  laid out, I'm not loving it. I mean I think its a great quilt, but I'm not sure I want it for my bed quilt anymore.  Why do I change my mind in the middle of the process?  I will finish this, but I'm finding myself distracted with a new vision.  More on that later.  

I managed to finish hand quilting the churn dash quilt this week.  For some reason this one seamed to take forever.  It feels so good to say its done.  Now for the binding...

Lindsay

More Like Home Everyday

Over the holiday weekend, I was able to pick up my new sofa.  We haven't had one since we moved in in April.  Now this place finally feels like home to me. 

We bought the Ikea Kivik sofa with a dark grey slip cover.  I'm already in love with it.  Its super firm but still comfy as it has some memory foam.  And the fact that it is slip cover makes me happy too.  I think my coffee table works well with the height of the seat and they compliment each other well.  

Just before we moved my husband surprised me with this beautiful pair of blue crushed velvet sofa chairs.  He was so excited!  He said he got theme at an estate sale for $40 each.  What a steal!  They are super comfy and in good shape.  We will have to reupholster them eventually as the back are badly sun bleached, but you can't see that really up against the wall.   I've ordered some fabric to recover some pillows to tie the sofa and chairs together.  

 Its Anna Maria Horner's new Field Study Linen line.  I purchase a half yard bundle in the Charisma colorway (above) from Sew Love Fabrics for $40.  It was hard to choose between the colorways.  But I went with this one because it was brightest and my furniture is dark.  Can't wait to get my hands on them.

The first night we had the new sofa we hosted some out of town friends over with their two little ones.  Together with my son they broke it in perfectly.  I couldn't be happier...until today when I saw these at Target:

I don't know about you, but I love me some vintage blue Ball mason jars.  I was just thinking I wish I could find some more around here, but they are so popular they cost $15+ per jar.  I'm sorry, but that is rediculous!  I got my first one for 50 cents at a garage sale last summer.  I would have paid maybe $5, but not more.  I had no idea Ball was coming out with this anniversary edition, but I bought them with no hesitation.  Under $8 for 6 jars.  Now we have new glassware:D

Just for the sake of comparison, I had to put them side by side.

  My vintage one is much more of a aqua (blue/green) and the new vintage one on the right is more of a turquoise.  I love all shades of aqua, teal, turquoise etc.  So I don't mind the differences.  

I did some more sewing of my quilt I'll be back later this week to share my progress.

Lindsay

Growth :: WIP

Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I was blessed to share the day with my family.  

Today I got back to work on the quilt for my queen size bed.  This will be the 2nd largest quilt I've made.  I'm using mostly my FMF fabric stash and a few other favorites I thought coordinated well.  

One of my inspirations came from one of my favorite fashion designers Orla Kiely.  I'd die to own one of her handbags.  I had an Orla Kiely table cloth from Target once, but have recently parted with it.  BTW, Target sells the limited edition Orla Kiely for Method cleaning products right now.  I've purchased my fare share already.  I just adore this stem print wall paper below.  Don't know if you've seen it already, but her bedding is at Bed Bath & Beyond too.

Orla Kiely Home Decor (wall paper)

Although there are plenty of petal templates out there and lots of tips on sewing curves, I'm not up to doing that many petals for this size quilt at this time.  So I kept looking for other options that would give a similar vibe.  Then I saw the quilt below a few weeks ago from Cluck Cluck Sew:

 

Herringbone Quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew

I've admired so many herringbone quilts lately, but hadn't seen one done in multi color before this one.  And so a plan began, a sketch was drawn, and the quilt was calculated using 5" charms.  

300 HSTs (half square triangles) all squared up and ready to go:

Today I threw up the batting on my bedroom wall and Ta Da... My first design wall!  I love it because I can see the layout so much better this way.  Especially for such a large quilt!  My bedroom wall is perfect too.  1) because its the brightest room in the house and 2) its the room the quilt will live in.  Here is just a snapshot of the beginning sprouts.

I'm still rearranging and swaping out fabrics, but I'm loving how its coming together. 

Lindsay

Flea Market Fancy - The Beginning

Today I cut into my FMF (Flea Market Fancy) fabric bundle.   I've finally come up with a modern quilt plan for my bedroom using my favorite vintage inspired line from Denyse Schmidt.   More to follow in the weeks to come!  I'm so excited!

 

m&m's are my favorite sewing indulgence.  After each step I reward myself.  I found this cute little tin in the dollar section at Target.  Isn't it cute!  Oh yah, and I'm trying these new-to-me Raspberry flavored m&m's.  So far very yummy.  Try them, and thank me later ;D 

Fabric Friday

Yesterday I hit my local quilt shop, a rarity without my kid in tow.  Surprisingly it happened to be their anniversary sale!  Lucky me;D

I couldn't resist a few new stash builders.  Some low-volume prints.  Those specticals are the cutest!

Some OOP (out of print) favorites 

...and the 6"square panel strips of 16 in three color-ways of Anna Maria Horners' Little Folks voiles.  I can't believe how soft they are!

Oh and they had yardage of this Summer Soireé print by Paula Prass that is just darling so I bought a yard for who knows what?...hoarding I guess.

Today I worked on a couple custom orders for my Sandwich Wrap/Mats. Aren't they cute?

Hope to finish the rest of the orders this weekend.

Settling In

Oh how I've missed you guys.  Man a month has flown by with business.  Thankfully I can now say, life is back to normal.  Well at least a new normal!  Sadly the only boxes left to unpack and organize are my fabrics.  Selfishly I would have unpacked them first, but if you know me, I'd never sleep until my house, especially the kitchen is in order.  Two hungry boys depend on me for food.  Soon I hope to share with you pictures of our new home, but I haven't picked up our new couch yet, and my walls are naked.  So stay tuned...

I did manage to meet one of my 'before I move' goals.  A finished a quilt.  Not just any quilt, but one for my mother. 

 Freedom Quilt

She received it at her birthday dinner at the end of March and has mentioned more than a few times how much she loves it.  I still can't believe it took me this long to make her a quilt.  She has been high on my priority list, but I had to collect the perfect fabrics over time.  She was worth the wait and I'm so happy with the combination that unfolded.

Please pardon the picture quality.  It really doesn't do the quilt justice.  The FREE pattern/tutorial I used was Starry Eyed by Angela of Fussy Cut.  Its was an easy tutorial and I thought the star theme went really well with my Red, White and Blue selection of fabrics.  

This here is my favorite block because I managed to add a piece of Anna Maria Horner into the center.  This small piece of fabric was a swatch thrown in with an fabric bundle I received a while back.  I kept it on top of my growing fat quarter stash for my mother's quilt for inspiration.  In this quilt, it adds a fireworks kind of effect. 

You may have noticed I used a bit of Bliss by Bonnie & Camille, as well as a very large variety of DS Quilt fabrics and a few reproduction prints from Darlene Zimmerman and P&B Textiles.  But my ultimate favorite was that I was able to use the Holly Hobbie-ish fabric as my white background.  It was the perfect low volume print.  This print I picked up at JoAnne Fabrics, oh gosh, I don't know.  Maybe 8 years ago.  I had 3 yards on hand so I had just enough for this large throw quilt.  I think it was the perfect touch, don't you?

For the back I scored on the clearance rack both DS Quilt prints for only $6/yard...and then I did a center scrap strip to join the two together.  It was really fun to design the pieced quilt back.  

For the quilting I don't have a detailed shot, but in case you are interested I used my walking foot to quilt in the ditch.  I quilted in the ditch between every print and the white background, including every star.  It was a serious trying of my patience, kind of test.  But the end result was just what I was hoping for.  

Well I'll be back hopefully soon to share some pictures of my sewing corner all set up.

xo,

Lindsay