June 2-a completed quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I worked very hard this week to finish up this quilt! I started it last summer when I hosted my June quilt QAL. I basted it about a month ago. I started quilting it on Tuesday and worked on it for the better part of 3 days to quilt and bind it. I'm so pleased that it's finally complete! It's such a happy quilt, isn't it?

While the quilt top assembly didn't take too long, figuring out a quilting plan did. I finally decided to treat a few of the elements separately. I did loop-de-loops in the pieced sashing. I quilted the diagonals in one direction continuously, but I had to start and stop for the diagonals in the other direction. There were a A LOT of knots to bury on this quilt! (I use the tutorial here.)

I used a walking foot to do some concentric square quilting in the polka dot blocks. That took a lot longer than I bargained for. More knots to bury! I estimated that it took me about 6 hours to quilt JUST the center 18 squares. I think it took me at least 10 hours to quilt this entire quilt. That's crazy! This quilt isn't that big. I'm happy to say that the quilting turned out better than I imagined, so it was totally worth it....sore shoulders and all. :)

For the backing, I used this cute typewriter keys print and added borders on all 4 sides to frame it so it would be centered. I LOVE this combination! I'm also pleased that it all came from my stash.

The binding is a tiny gingham that was printed on the bias. It's from the line Cottontail Cottage by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. I love how it frames the quilt. Gingham binding is almost always a good idea!

The quilt measures about 51" x 68".

 

The links to the June QAL can be found here:

 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

 

The original pattern for the June quilt (85" square) can be found in my book No Scrap Left Behind. Isn't it fun to see the same pattern in a different color option? That, to me, never gets old.

 

Alright! That's it for me today. Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

annex double zip pouch

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Today's finish is a fun double zip boxy pouch. I bought the supplies at Stitch Supply Co. well over a year ago. I think I was a little intimidated by the double zipper, so I may have procrastinated a little bit. I'm so glad I finally took the time this week to sew it up.

I LOVE a quilted panel on the outside of my zip pouches. Even though it takes extra time, it's totally worth it! This pattern calls for Pellon Flex Foam, which is quite spongy, so it creates a lot of opportunity for the fabric to shift during quilting. Thankfully I had some 505 spray on hand, which I used to keep the fabric in place while quilting the outer panels. It worked like a charm! My Hera marker (by clover) is one of my favorite tools for marking and it came in very handy for this project, too. I marked the fabric BEFORE I placed in on the foam, so I got a nice crisp line/crease to follow.

It was fun to pick out two different fabrics for the lining...

 ....and two different colored zippers, too.

The pattern is called the Annex double-zip box pouch by Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness. The zip pouch shown in this post is the largest size. I'm excited to fill it with portable projects and use it! I don't think you can EVER have too many cute zip pouches.

I was showing it to my husband last evening and he hinted that if I ever made a masculine looking one, he might be able to take it off my hands and find a use for it. Ha! I guess I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm thinking I might try it in vinyl, perhaps.

Alright, that's it for me today. Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining for me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend!

visible mending

I've seen a lot of people sharing their visible mending projects on Instagram and we even had a demo about it at quilt guild a few years back, but until recently I haven't given it a try. I mean, we patched our clothes growing up, but believe me, it wasn't pretty. Ha! A few weeks ago, I finally dipped my toes in the water of visible mending and I'm so glad that I did! It makes my frugal heart happy.

These are my younger son's jeans. He wore a hole in the pocket area from carrying his phone around. The pocket lining started peeking out from the hole and it was just awkward. I used a piece of denim from an old pair of jeans and thin polyester black thread for the stitching. I didn't want to use perle cotton because it would be too visible for his tastes. I went with poly thread because I figured it would be stronger and withstand more wear.

One of the knees had a hole in as well. Thankfully I patched it before it split the entire way, side to side. (I have another pair of his jeans in the mending queue where that happened.....)

I was surprised that the mending turned out as well as it did, honestly. It felt GREAT to give new life to my son's favorite jeans. He wears them a lot since I patched them and he thanked me multiple times for mending them. Isn't that the best?

A few weeks ago, my daughter discovered one of our puppies chewing on a quilt. It was NOT a happy day, let me tell you! The good thing is, of all the quilts that the pup could have chosen to chew on, this is about the best case scenario. (f there is such a thing....)

Last evening, I added a patch of contrasting solid fabric to each side of the quilt and did some big stitch quilting with perle cotton.

The stitching is pretty rustic, especially on the back, but I think that's ok! I'm glad I was able to fix it. Like a friend said, now that's part of this quilt's story. It definitely adds character!

 

Have you given visible mending a try? If you haven't yet, I would encourage you to do so...but hopefully you won't need to do it on any of your quilts! :)

biased-a completed quilt

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Last weekend I put the final stitches in the binding, so...my biased quilt is complete!

This is a simple string quilt that was foundation pieced onto phone book papers, which are later removed. (You can find an in depth block tutorial here.) It's a great use for a phone book, don't you think??? :) While the construction method is fairly straightforward, the color work is complex, I would say. It was a fun quilt to build, one string at a time. I am VERY pleased with how it turned out!

I kind of got sucked into this project and I didn't want to work on many other things at the time, so I pieced it rather quickly. (That's a good thing!) I used solids from a variety of manufacturers in more colors than I could guess. I know I say this all the time, but as with any scrap quilt, more is better!

For the back, I used this BRIGHT lemon yellow print from my good neighbors fabric line (which is out of print). The binding is Kona pomegranate, which is a beautiful pinky-red that is super hard to photograph accurately, but trust me --it's a good one! It's one of my current favorites, actually. I made biased binding for this quilt, even though you can't tell, because it's a solid fabric. Since the name of the quilt is BIASED, I thought it was fitting. It's the little things, right?

There was no question in my mind that I was going to send it out to be quilted professionally because I didn't want to mess it up! The quilting was done by Steffani Burton. (Thanks, Steffani!) I love the contrast of the quilted swirls against the graphic lines of the piecing. I think it makes a nice pairing.

I labeled this quilt right away, too! Labeling isn't my favorite, but I feel that it IS important and I'm trying to do it more consistently. Two in a row is a pretty good start. Ha!

The quilt measures about 60" x 75". This is my second quilt in my Salute to Solids series, where I am on a quest to make 10 scrap quilts from the solids bin. You can see the first quilt in the series here.

I'm going to be teaching an improv string class based on this quilt at Glamp Stitch-a-lot in Ann Arbor, Michigan in November. You can find more details here, if you are interested!

Ok, that's it for me today! It's your turn to link up your finishes for the week. Thanks, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a GREAT weekend!

slow and steady

It feels like all of my projects are SLOW these days....but I'm reminding myself that slow and steady is the name of the game. I'm also reminding myself to enjoy the process, because that's kind of the point, right?

That being said, I was quite excited to finish another hundred 4 patch blocks. I'm up to two hundred (and four) now. I still haven't done the math to determine how many I need in all. I'm going to wait awhile longer to do that. No need getting discouraged at this point. Ha!

I think I've mentioned this before, but after I make 100 blocks, they go into a baggie. That is an easy way to keep tabs on my progress. What I really need to do is sit down and cut a bunch of squares one afternoon. If they are cut, I will happily sew them! Anyone else get stuck in the cutting phase?

Here is progress on my 100 day project. I had a strong start, but I've been finding it hard to get back to it every day. I DID make a noticeable dent in the scrap drawer I was working from, so that's encouraging. I've been putting pieces up on the design wall as I sew. I kind of like the white between the blocks, so I'm thinking of incorporating that in my quilt this time. It would be a different twist on the vortex quilt and I think it would be fun! I have plenty of white scraps to use, so it's a definite possibility. I guess I better keep sewing! :)

a traditional log cabin quilt-complete!!!

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

Today I am THRILLED to share with you my completed log cabin quilt!

I started this quilt back in May of 2016 and I'm delighted that it took me less than 2 years to complete it. Truth be told, most of the blocks were made earlier this year in a marathon quilt making session. It was a little intense. Hahaha!

I made it a point to use some of my most precious fabrics in this quilt. I used a lot of fabrics from Denyse Schmidt, some from Heather Ross, Carolyn Friedlander, and soooo many other great designers. I also mixed in some of my own designs from each of my fabric lines. (That was pretty fun, I have to admit!) I added a lot of blenders and several 30's reproduction fabrics, too. I LOVED using such a large variety of prints in one quilt. The more the better!

It looks SO good on my bed! EEEP!

I quilted it with simple loops all over with white Aurifil 50 weight thread. I love the texture it created....and it hasn't even been washed yet! It took a LONG time to quilt!!! Days and days. I'm really glad that I quilted it myself, though. There is such a feeling of accomplishment quilting a KING size quilt, even if the quilting isn't perfect.

My original plan for the binding was to use red and white polka dots. That's my default, it seems. I didn't have any appropriate options on hand, so I chose this springy apple green polka dot instead. I LOVE the pop of color on the outside of the quilt. It worked out so well....plus, it was in my stash, which means I could make the binding at 9pm. We all know that is important! :)

I love the front of the quilt, but the fun fact is, that it's actually two quilts in one, because I pieced a back from my stash. I used a stack of fabrics that I had bundled together YEARS ago, thinking it would make a cute quilt...you know, someday. Well, after some editing (adding AND subtracting), I have ANOTHER quilt. That's good use of my batting dollar. Hurray!

I LOVE that this block says "Cookies". That will be sure to make me smile every time I see it. Quirky and fun.

On the back I used some of my vintage fabric (the two florals shown) that came from my grandma's house. It was a little thin, but I really wanted to use it. Realizing that the quilt will only be as strong as the weakest fabric, I added some Pellon SF101 to the back of the thin fabrics to stabilize them. They should withstand a lot of wear now. I'm so glad I thought of that solution sooner rather than later. (Which would be typical!)

I think the back turned out even better than I imagined it would. I LOVE it when that happens.

I labeled the quilt nearly right away, so it's REALLY done! After all that work, I am very happy to put my name on this quilt! I opted for a hand written label because it feels more personal. I like having a bit of my handwriting on the quilt label, even if it's not super polished.

The quilt measures 108" x 99". AND....it's scrap project #202!!!! That means that I've officially wrapped up my second round of my 101 scrap challenge. WOOHOO!!! That feels amazing!

All together this quilt used about 12.1 yards of scraps for the front, nearly 10 yards of fabric for the back, and about 3/4 of a yard for binding, which means that this quilt contains nearly 23 yards of fabric. How CRAZY is that???? It weights nearly 9 pounds. This one heavy duty quilt!

You can find the measurements here, if you care to make one of your own!

 

Alright! That's it for me today! Now it's your turn. Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great (and safe!) weekend! xo

 

 

 

type clutch

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I'm pretty excited about this week's finish! I've wanted to make a hard framed clutch for a LONG time, but they have always intimidated me. Last week when I was teaching in North Carolina, I saw Lee's clutches in person and I knew that it was time. I chose to use fabric (rather than patchwork) for my first attempt. I'm so glad I did! It was a quick and mostly easy project.

 I used some hoarded fabric for the exterior (isn't it so cute???)....

....and more hoarded fabric for the inside, which is from the same line, incidentally. (Fabrics are Type by Julia Rothman for Windham fabrics.)

The hardest part of this project was gluing the fabric into the frame. Truthfully, it really wasn't that hard, it was a just a personal hang up. Something about gluing fabric makes me a little (or a lot) nervous. The good thing is, the glue overage that I had was able to be removed easily after it dried. Phew! This particular frame has screws to secure the fabric into the frame to add stability to the clutch. I'm thankful for that feature, because I want this clutch to hold up for a long time!

When I showed this to my son last night, he exclaimed, "you made THAT?" Yep, I sure did! I love that the hard frame gives it such a professional finish. Fun, fun!

The pattern is called Clutched and it is available here. The frames can be purchase here or here. The frame size is 8 x 3. There is a smaller sized pattern called Cased, which can be found here. It uses the same size frame, it is just a shorter version of the Clutched pattern.

That's it for me today! Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you, as always, for joining me for finish it up Friday! Have a great weekend! xo

on a whim

Several people on Instagram are jumping into the 100 day project challenge, which officially started yesterday. The challenge is pretty open ended...you pick your own creative challenge (drawing, painting, lettering, sewing, etc.) and try to do a little bit each day for 100 days. I had no intention of joining in. None whatsoever. I've done a few stints of 31 day challenges, and boy, were they difficult! I'm keenly aware that 100 days is considerably longer than a month long challenge, so it wasn't even on my radar. But then....Wendy posted that she was taking on the challenge and her focus is working on a scrap vortex quilt over the next 100 days. She invited others to sew along with her. On a total whim, I decided to join in. In fact, I was sewing within the hour. Ha!

I pulled out my drawer of ticker tape scraps (they are SMALL!) and started sewing. Man, it was fun!!

Here's what I came up with for day 1. Not a bad start. The tiny strips are for my pint-sized scrappy churn dash blocks. (They are a great by-product of the vortex piecing. Hurray!)

And here's day 2. More of the same!

The nice thing about this challenge is that it is very low pressure. No finished product is required each day. I hope to sew a little bit on it each day, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it if I miss a day here and there. The one thing that I'm looking forward to the most is watching the blocks accumulate on the design wall. A little bit at a time. Just like any scrap quilt. :)

If you want to join in, you can find the links for the Scrap Vortex Quilt Along here:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5

 Are you doing the 100 day challenge? If so, I'd love to hear what you are working on! 

scrappy churn dash block tutorial--pint sized

Today I'll be sharing a quick tutorial to make this pint sized scrappy churn dash block. It will finish at 4 1/4"!!!! If you make 4 of these blocks and sew them together, they will (should!) equal the size of one large scrappy churn dash block. (Tutorial here.) I've been mulling it over, and I'm planning on making one quilt using both block sizes. I think it's going to be super fun!!!

From the background fabric cut:
(1) 2 3/4" square for the center
(2) 2" squares for the corners
(4) 1" x 2 3/4" rectangles for the sides

From a contrast fabric cut:
(2) 2" squares for the corners

From scraps, piece several together, end to end, to make:
(4) 1" x 2 3/4" scrappy strips
(they are TINY!)

Cut each of the 2" squares (background and contrast fabrics) on the diagonal once. Pair one fabric of each and sew together to make 4 half-square triangles. Press seams open. Trim each half-square triangle to 1 1/2".

Lay out the pieces as shown above.

Sew the scrappy strips to the strips of background fabric. Press seams toward the background fabric.

Sew the block segments into rows. Press seams in the top and bottom rows toward the triangles. Press the seams in the middle row toward the center.

Sew the rows together to complete the block assembly. Press well. Use a bit of spray starch to press the block flat. Isn't that just the cutest??? If you only want to make one of these, you could turn it into a pincushion. If you wanted to make a lot more, they sure would make a cute quilt! Either way, I hope you enjoy this tutorial.

Happy Monday to you!