I’ve Been A Busy Bee

The coffee press sleeves and pin cushions will be added to the store tonight or tomorrow. The heating pad cover will have to be done again…this was a trial run.  It was about 1/2” too small each direction.  Oh well.  It’s working out well enough for now.  But I'd be happier with a better fit.  I’ve been using it for my back (and cramps) the past four days and Friday I finally got tired of the icky cover that came with it.  It was time to beautify it.  The needled case I made in EXTREME haste before we went to California.  It’s working out nicely.  The wonky stars quilt is finished and I will share some photos tomorrow…as well as photos of a few other finished quilts (I hope!). 

Revealing The Owner

Remember this gorgeous quilt that I gave you a sneak-peak of a few weeks ago?  Well, you can finally see the finished product!  Just head on over to Allison’s blog where you’ll see it all crinkly from the wash. 

I offered to quilt it for her free of charge…but she snuck in some fabrics.  And I love everyone of them.  They are fabrics I don’t have and love to see in other quilts but wouldn’t necessarily pick up for myself.  I love getting fabric from others for that very reason.  I’ve been thinking about offering quilting services since last winter…but I haven’t done anything about it yet.  I’m still debating with myself on whether I want to take on something like that.  I have a few locals that have expressed an interest in having me quilt for them, so I'll probably stick to that for now…maybe the occasional special request. 

Brice had a LOT of fun playing with the fabrics, can you tell?  They were scattered all over the room, tossed up on tables and the such.  This morning he brought me a fat quarter out of the sewing room.  My kid loves fabric.

Apple Bag

This one went “bye-bye”…

But this one is soon to be added to the in the shop. 

I got into the creating groove last night.  I’ve had the stuff bought to create a stamp for awhile now, but haven’t taken the plunge to work on it yet.  Well, after seeing that Amber got some cotton twill ribbon in her online store (The Ribbon Jar), I placed an order.  It arrived yesterday and so I decided now was as good of a time as ever…half way through sewing a bag…cause, you know, I have “crafter’s ADD”.  So I printed up my logo, drew it on the stamp-making-stuff and carved it out.  Then I grabbed the ink and stamped on the new twill tape.

And now it’s nicely sewn into my new apple bag.  I should have cut my twill tape a smidgen longer.  Next time.

Anyways, there’s a new magazine pocket on the back…

…and a great pocket inside to hold pens or utensils (should you choose to use it as a lunch bag)…

And some really cute red polka dot lining with red grosgrain ribbon closure.  Now to make another linen one…

Workspace Chaos

This was before I left…getting a project ready to work on that I never had time to work on.  Isn’t that always how it goes??  It’s always that one time you don’t bring anything to work on that you find the time. 

And here was my workspace yesterday.  Pretty messy for me.  I’m happy to report that it’s cleaned up again now that the scramble to finish a project is done. 

And I can’t leave you with all black and white photos.  I love red dots.  I can’t wait to use red dots as a binding on a quilt!  Red Pepper Quilts has been inspiring me to do that lately.  Heck, she just inspires me to quilt…period.  Where do these women find the time to crank out the quilts?  Did you sign the FMF petition yet?

Flea Market Fancy Freaks

Consider yourself a Flea Market Fancy Freak?  Then head on over to the Flea Market Fancy Freaks blog and sign the “petition” to bring back another run of FMF!  Read all about it by clicking here!

Last week Penny of Sew Take a Hike contacted a few of us and let us know of her plan to contact Free Spirit about a second run of this beautiful fabric line.  She hopes to gather our signatures and links to projects and stashes in one spot and overwhelm Free Spirit with our desire for more Flea Market Fancy.  There is already a response from them…but I'll let you read about it for yourself on the blog.  So hurry over and sign the petition.  Let’s all show Free Spirit how much we support this line being reprinted! 

Found

These fabric finds came from a favorite shop of mine here in Livermore.  I haven’t seen these Christmas fabric yet.  I want to find a few more to make a quilt…or maybe these would be cute stockings.  The books came from the Kinokuniya Bookstore in San Francisco.  I was surprised by how small the craft book section was, ours back home is probably 3 times bigger (at least).  But they did have a nice English section of art books, as well as some in Japanese.  I will check out that section more often back home. 

We head back home today.  Brice slept on the flight here, so I’m hoping we can have a repeat performance on the way home.  The wedding was nice, I got to catch up with some family.  Brice got to meet a fourth cousin (yes, 4th!).  Today I think we’re going to go and visit with my new brother-in-laws family before we head home.  I will share more photos on the family blog later tonight, but I loved this photo of my sister.  She is standing in front of a fan (sans shoes) while talking to some friends.  It was terribly hot and stuffy in the reception hall, and the poor girl is 7 months pregnant now.  She handled it well, with a smile on her face.

**EDITED**  The holiday fabric is Be Merry by Riley Blake Designs - found here.

Almost There!

All quilted!  I had the hardest time deciding how to quilt this one.  I had all my usual options, but wanted to try something new.  I like to try new designs once in awhile. 

These dots are really pink – but because I took the photo this evening with only overhead light, it looks kid of red.  It’s the pink dot from the Ava Rose line.

This is the first time I've done this bubble effect on a quilt.  I like it.  And I'm rather good with circles, if I do say so myself!  I like the contrast of the rounded bubbles, with the pointy stars. 

The binding is all ready to go, too.  But that will have to wait until our return.  Tomorrow will be spent packing, and trying to get some little projects finished.  I’d like to say I'll take the time to get a little project together to take with me…but I probably wont.  It makes it hard when I can’t take scissors as a carry on.  It means my fabric has to be all cut and ready to go in the right dimensions.  So we’ll see if I can figure it out.

Patchwork Pin Cushion

Sometimes you just need a little project in between the big ones.  This was quick and satisfying…and so darn cute!  I’d like to say I’ll make some for the shop – but don’t hold me to it.

Maybe next week.  Brice, my mom and I are flying down to California on Friday for the weekend.  The oldest of my [half]sisters is getting married.  I can’t even imagine being married at 18 and expecting a baby, but I know she is going to be a wonderful wife and mother (come November).  I also know what the first year of marriage being pregnant and a new parent is like – so I hope to be able to offer her lots of sisterly support…should she get better about emailing and texting back.  Why are kids so bad about that?

I have aspirations of getting this done before we’re gone.  I know it will be quilted tomorrow, but binding might have to wait until we return on Sunday.  We will have a lovely visit with a long time friend of mine in San Francisco on Friday and hope to visit a few of my favorite quilt shops in the area, and maybe find some new ones.

We’re planning on just carry-on, with Brice sitting in my lap and only being allowed a diaper bag in addition to my carry-ons.  And it’s a little Horizon plane…  (I’m so sorry if you happen to be on that flight, my kid will be “that” kid no one wants to sit by.)  Mary asked me what I was going to do if I found a ton of fabric, how would I get it home – that’s what the postal service is for!  It’s so much cheaper to send first class or even priority mail, than to pay the $15 for checked baggage. 

I Love That Point

…where a quilt being quilted is far enough along that the end just barley touches the ground.  (Not my quilt, I’ll share more later.)

…when you run the final swipe of the iron on a row of stitching and fold it up to be squared off.

Tutorial :: String Quilt Block

Here it is – our August block for the Sampler Quilt Along (see sidebar for links). So this tutorial has been done a lot.  And it’s a nice easy block.  I really hate to do a tutorial that has already been done so much, but maybe I do things a little differently and I want to present every block for this sampler quilt in one spot.  So, I’m going to kind of breeze through it (because it is simple) and give you some links to other great tutorials out there at the end.  We all learn differently, and maybe this tutorial will be the “Ah-ha!” moment you need to try it out. 

Directions

1.  I started out by grabbing a 12 x 12 piece of scrapbook paper I had laying around, in a color I wasn’t too fond of.  I then folded it in half along the diagonal to prep it for my first piece.

2.  Grab your first strip of fabric, any width you want, and make sure it covers the block, centered along your folded diagonal line, and overhangs each corner by at least a 1/2”. 

3.  Grab a second piece of fabric, again long enough that it will overhang the edges by 1/2”, and lay it right sides together with the first fabric, matching up the raw edges.  Pin in place. 

4.  Sew it down and then press open.  I used a very small stitch length to make for easy tearing away of paper later.

5.  Now, working on the opposite side, grab a third strip of fabric, lay it right sides together with first (center) fabric, matching raw edges and pin in place.

6.  Sew it down and press open.  (Photo was taken with block rotated, but you get the idea.)

7.  Continue this process, alternating sides or working on one side at a time until your block is complete.  I stop pining my pieces after I get that center piece secured with the first two fabrics on either side of it. 

**Note**I don’t pay attention to my widths, I like them to all be different, I just make sure all of my pieces over hang the edge of my 12 x1 2 sheet of paper by about a 1/2”.  For this block I just grabbed whatever scrap was in my pile and fit.

8.  Once all your strips are sewn down, flip over your block and square it up to be 12-1/2”.  I made sure to leave a 1/4” beyond the paper on each side. 

**Note** I did this by lining up the quarter inch mark of my ruler along the top and right side of my piece of paper.  Trim.  Then I rotated the block to trim the other two sides, lining up my ruler’s 12-1/2” mark along the bottom and left side of my trimmed sides of my block (just incase the paper wasn’t exactly 12” square, which it wasn’t…it was slightly off.)

9.  Tear away your strips of paper.  If you used a small stitch length, this should tear away very easily.

And there you go!  You’re all done!  How easy was that!  And here are some more great tutorials from other bloggers out there:

Film In The Fridge: A String Quilt Block Tutorial – Paper Pieced Method
Craft Blog (Australia): String Quilt Block Tutorial
Happy Things: Foundation Pieced Strip Quilt Tutorial (on the straight!)
Quiltville: String Quilting Primer
P.S. I Quilt: Block O’ Strings Tutorial

And here is some great inspiration to get you motivated:

And let’s not forget these either:
Kindred Crafters (by Donna)
Cluck Cluck Sew (Allison – did you finish this yet?)
Sewtakeahike (A few great blocks)
Simple Things (A quilt AND pillows)

As always – if you have questions please feel free to ask in comments or email me! And please consider adding your photos to the Quilt-Along Flickr Group!

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Update 9/4/2009 – I just realized the Mosaic doesn’t link to all of the great string block inspiration!  I’ve fixed that now.  When you click on the photo you will be redirected to my photostream on Flickr where you can click on the individual links.  Also, I had a repeat block in this photo – so if you click over to the photostream, you will see a new inspiration quilt in the bottom left corner.