August/September Bee Blocks and Other Random Sewing

August was Megan's month in the Sew Beautiful Bee. She asked for Lone Starburst blocks. She sent a bunch of really bright fabric scraps and asked us to follow the tutorial found at the Six White Horses blog here. I loved, loved, loved making this block! I usually start to sweat a bit when asked to paper piece, but this one was very doable for me and I had a lot of fun with it. I'll definitely be making some of these for myself in the near future!

AnneMarie's turn was next for September. She asked for improv hexagon blocks inspired by Angela's block here. AnneMarie sent a bunch of Japanese import prints. It was fun to fussycut these fabrics for the hexagons.

While perusing Instagram, I saw Rae's maxi version of her Washi Dress and just about died. I stalked her blog for a couple days, anxiously awaiting the release of her pattern. I snagged one and quickly bought fabric to make a Washi Tunic and a Washi Maxi. Here's my "quick, honey, take a picture of my shirt with my phone" photo. I haven't tackled the maxi yet, but I am please with how the tunic version came together.

My older daughter is at the age where not only does she love to wear skirts and dresses, but she likes wearing things that I've made for her. I want to take advantage of that for as long as I can since I know all too soon she'll refuse to wear anything I make for her or even hint at thinking is cool, because of course anything Mom thinks is cool will be the complete opposite. Several Saturdays ago, she wanted to wear a skirt (of course), and I sadly, but not surprisingly, was behind on laundry. I pulled out some Heather Ross Crafy Chloe Pin People fabric and made a quick 10-minute skirt. My daughter's friend wanted to play, and when she got to our house, she saw me making the skirt for my daughter. She asked if I'd make her one too. I tried to hide my huge goofy grin, said, "Sure," and asked her what her favorite color is (pink). I finished my daughter's skirt, she got dressed, and the two girls went out to play. I then ran upstairs, found some pink fabric, and whipped together another 10-minute skirt for the friend. (I noticed she was wearing it yesterday when she came over to play...my heart sang!)

I mentioned earlier that paper piecing makes me nervous. But, I've really come to love English paper piecing (EPP). I've been accumulating supplies over the last couple months and decided it was about time I make a zippered pouch to store my paper pieces in. For this pouch, I cut two 10x10 inch squares from Melody Miller's Ruby Star Shining typewriter fabric and two 10x10 inch squares from Joel Dewberry's Deer Valley Lodge Lattice in Azure fabric, and used a 10 inch zipper. I boxed the bottom of the pouch, making the finished bag about 8 inches wide by 9 inches tall. It's the perfect size (for now), and it's great to have all my EPP supplies in one place.

Well, thanks for making it through that hodgepodge of a post. I have a couple more finished quilts to show over the next little bit. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Two More Finished Baby Quilts (one of them made by the mister!)

A couple years ago, the mister thought it would be fun to try teaching me some photography tips. He has a passion for photography and I thought it couldn't hurt to learn how to take better pictures of my sewing and quilting projects. While he was teaching me about his hobby, he thought it'd be fun to learn how to make a quilt. So, we looked through my fabric (he picked Arcadia by Sanae) and then found a tutorial he thought would be fun (Jacquie Gehring's Wonky Log Cabin tutorial). I showed him how to use the rotary cutter appropriately and then he came up with his own cutting/sewing/pressing station, which pretty much meant that the cutting mat, ironing board, and sewing machine were all set up on our living room floor so he could go from one station to the next with only rotating his torso. He used his knee to push down the pedal as he sewed. I wish I would have taken a picture because it was quite the sight!

These are the four blocks he made during the first couple sewing sessions.

After making those blocks, he got busy and distracted by other things and they were put aside for a couple years. However, two of his coworkers got married to each other a couple months ago and are expecting their first child. The mister wanted to pull out the blocks and finish a baby quilt to give to his friends. As the first few blocks took a bit of time to make, he wanted to switch gears and use a design that he could make in an evening. So, I helped by cutting the fabric and he sewed them into strips. He did all the piecing and pressing. He even spray basted the quilt, straight-line quilted it, and attached the first side of the binding.

He did such a great job and I'm so proud of him. He took the quilt to work a couple days later (I had to show it off at the SLMQG meeting of course) and gave it to the husband/soon-to-be-dad in the break room. I wish I could have seen it! The mister said his face turned all red as he handed over the quilt to his coworker in a room full of people. Priceless!

Earlier that day, I was working on this baby quilt. When my partner sent me the pillow she made for me in round 7 of the Pillow Talk Swap, she included an extra purple string, paper-pieced star that didn't end up fitting into her pillow design. I used that as the focal point of this quilt.

I don't have a lot of purple in my stash, which is strange because I love purple for clothes, but I guess I just haven't been a big user of it in quilts. Anyway, I managed to find some purples that worked well with the star as well as the solid that I picked up from Joann's: Kate Spain's Central Park, Lizzy House's 1001 Peeps, and Joel Dewberry's Heirloom. I used strips from each of those prints to make the binding as well. (That darn breeze wouldn't let me get a flat picture of the quilt!)

On the back, I just pieced a simple improv block using some of the scraps from the front and then offset it with the purple solid.

I also tried a new thread on this quilt. First, I used my typical piecing and quilting thread (but in gray instead of white), which is a 100% cotton machine quilting thread from Joann's. I'm not sure the brand, but it comes in a hefty size on the spool. I also wanted to try out Superior thread so I ordered a sampler pack a few weeks ago and one of the spools they sent me happened to be a dark purple that matched the purple solid in this quilt perfectly. And, just like in my last post, I tried some more new-to-me quilting designs. They're not even or consistent or great to say the least, but I kind of like them. They're "homey" and give the quilt a handmade feel that I like. Plus, practice makes perfect, right?

This quilt will be finding a home with a new little baby soon-to-be born.

A few quilt blocks

Since making this house block last year for Cara's quilt, I wanted to try making another one with a little more to it. I had a few fat quarters from the Dress Up Days line from Riley Blake, which showcases some super cute little girls doing various activities. I used the piece from the blue colorway as my starting point for this block. I cut out three of the little girls, added an apple tree, a house on a hill, and then hand-stitched a sun, cloud, and chimney with smoke.

I also tried making an atomic ranch-style house block. The mister told me it looks like a rest stop. With that, I put this block away and will try adding to it later when I can see something other than a rest stop crossed with Stonehenge. =)

I'm only three blocks away from finishing my Gradated Color Mod Mosaic quilt top. Here's another blue block. I have one more blue and two yellow blocks to go.

While driving to Oregon for my friend's wedding back in June, I took some paper pieces and fabric scraps and tried my hand at English Paper Piecing (EPP). I wish I would have planned the project out a little better. Since I only had scraps, not all the fabrics went well together. So I improvised. I may sew these hexagons onto some zippered pouches, or maybe make some more random hexagons and just attach them all like this for a table topper or something.

On our roadtrip, I found myself really enjoying EPP so when Kati asked for paper pieced stars for her month in the Sew Beautiful Bee, I settled on a rose star EPP pattern. This shot shows the star in progress, but I've since finished it and need to get the photo off my camera.

I've been spending a lot of my sewing time lately on smaller projects like this. It's really satisfying to start and finish a sewing project in one setting. But, I did manage to finish another quilt that had been basted and patiently waiting for months for me to get around to it. I'll show some more of these projects soon.

Ornaments Received

The goodies my partner, Diane, sent me from the Ho-Ho Holiday Swap arrived in the mail Wednesday. Look at these cute ornaments (and bookmark).



I seriously gasped when I took this ornament out of the package and saw the little note tucked inside. Diane sent me a piece of her family history as this ornament was made from a quilt given as a wedding gift to her parents (I think) in 1951. I couldn't believe it!



I don't have anything like this in my family so this was such a treasure to receive. It makes me excited for my grandchildren years down the road getting quilts that I've made.



This cute little tree ornament was made with the Figgy Pudding I sent out to our group.



And look at the back! Fun little selvages thrown in there. Love it!



Thanks so much, Diane! These ornaments have found a home nestled on my tree (high enough away from little hands, of course).