Patchwork Needle Clutch

Hooray! I sewed something! It's small and may have taken me a lot longer than usual, but I feel quite accomplished to have finished a project on my machine, considering the circumstances. For the last two years, my poor knitting needles have been a jumbled mess residing in a plastic bag. I've had to hunt for the correct size and type of needles every time I start a new project. No more! Now I have this cute little clutch to stow them all away in neatly and even take on the go.

I used many of my favorite prints, including lots of scraps, along with my new favorite solid, Robert Kaufman Quilter's Linen in charcoal. Little half square triangles make up a zig-zag pattern for the outside of the case, folded in thirds, (I still need to add a button)

and the inside has twelve pockets made for holding all my circular and double pointed needles. I just love it! There are a few changes I would make to the design next time, making it just a bit taller and adding a top flap which would double as a zip pouch for holding other knitting supplies. I may consider writing up a little "recipe" if anyone is interested in making one for themselves.

Quite a few good things have come in the mail lately. I must admit I have long been suffering from solid fabric phobia.  It is a point that is severely lacking in my stash and also, I believe, in my finished quilt designs. I have attempted to cure this by joining the Pink Chalk Solid of the Month Club. My first shipment did not disappoint! The month of April theme is jewel tones, mostly in the form of Free Spirit solids. The color saturation and hand on these is wonderful, and I'm sure they will soon become my go-to solid choice. I also had to pick up a copy of Modern Log Cabin Quilting by Susan Beal. The beautiful quilt on the cover was enough to sell me, but the inside is chock-full of gorgeous, inspiring projects too.

And I'll leave you with a little Tuesday morning rainbow. Even if yarn isn't your thing, you have to admit these beauties from Wollmeise are quite the eye candy, don't you?

I'll be back soon, hopefully with an actual quilt to show you! I'm feeling a bit better the last week, limiting my sewing time to an hour and a half in the evenings, so progress is slow but steady. And also stick around for a very exciting giveaway coming for you!!!

The Kerchief Girl Quilt

My Kerchief Girl Quilt was started way back in June of last year and is now finally finished, and I have to say I couldn't love it more. If you aren't familiar with the kerchief girls, they are a popular print from the Japanese fabric manufacturer Kei, and one of my favorite fabrics ever. I knew I wanted to make a quilt to showcase them in all six of their color ways separately. I went through my stash bringing out many of my most loved prints to coordinate with each of the girls and decided to make simple blocks inspired by this bee quilt of Rita's. It was so much fun piece! The six big blocks have actually been just sitting around in my sewing room for months now waiting for me to figure how I was going to incorporate them into a quilt.

After the holidays were over and I ticked a few WIPs off the list, they began calling to me again. Originally I had planned a much bigger quilt requiring more blocks, but in the end I decided sweet and simple would be best to show off the prints and colors. A little Kona white and a patchwork border finished it up.

The quilt was loosely free motion stippled, backed with a pretty turquoise blue print from Oliver & S's City Weekend line (from my stash - yay! - and is fabulous as a backing with it's silky smooth texture) and bound with a tiny ladybug check from Lecien's Minny Muu. It measures roughly 50x65 and is my new perfect knitting - in - bed cozy.

I can't resist showing a few more shots - we actually got sun in Seattle last weekend so I finally had an ideal opportunity for some decent photos! Normally I never photograph a quilt until it's had it's first wash and dry, but I literally raced through the hand sewing on the binding and darted outdoors to take advantage of the fleeting sunlight.

Another work in progress is finished! Now I'm off to work on my new WIP, my Single Girl quilt. I'm so  thrilled so many of you are joining in our quilt along - if you haven't signed up yet, pop on over to our Flickr group, The Single Girl Support Group. You still have plenty of time to get everything together, and we'd love to have you!

Weekend Sewing

Here we are at blog post 101! Thanks to all of you for your warm wishes for me making it all the way to one hundred posts. I'm not really sure how I had enough to post about in that many posts in just over a year, but I'm happy you're still here reading with me!

I've got a few finishes going on now, which I'm super happy about so I can dust off the sewing table, re-organize, and tackle a bunch of projects that have been on the back burner for too long. And start a holiday project or two. And then there is round 4 of the Pillow Talk Swap! But first I think I'll just take a few days away from it all and just knit. I don't love deadlines but I seem to have more than my share right now.

The Bliss quilt is almost finished. The top has actually been done for a month or two but I just haven't had time to quilt it yet. It's a gift for my mom's birthday - which is tomorrow! - but do you think there is anyway on earth I will actually finish? No. I thought I could knock out some quick free motion quilting, but after drooling at Brioni's quilt for so long I really wanted to go with these cathedral circles. So here I am at the ninth hour and not even half way done. But it looks great and I think my mom will be impressed once she finally gets the quilt! A sneak preview for her will have to do for now. Good thing moms are a forgiving bunch:)

And I'm just on the last leg of hand sewing the binding on this one, and I'm dying to show it to you but it's going to have to wait a couple more weeks! It's my very first tutorial and I'm a bit nervous about all my instructions working out. 

It's made with the new It's a Hoot line from Momo -  it's so cheery and vibrant and I couldn't wait to sew it up. Yardage is coming out soon and I'll definitely be investing in lots of the prints for the old stash.

Well I'm off for a rockin' Saturday night of quilting but I promise not to get too wild! 

Ugh. Basting Day.

Not my favorite part of the process. I actually sort of dread the quilt sandwich. The Bohemian Twins are my 8th and 9th quilts, and while I've been somewhat successful not completely bunching the back, it is still a struggle with lots of cursing and I think I did something to my back and shoulder by bending down doing all that bloody pining.

Does it ever get easier????

I was searching online for some pep-talks and tips that maybe I hadn't stumbled across before, and ran across this quote by the fabulous Rita (redpepperquilts) - "There is no joy in basting a quilt."

Thanks for making me feel a bit better with that gem, Rita! If an uber-talented professional like you still has troubles with this task, than I guess I don't feel like a total moron.

Now onto the quilting!

I took the evening off quilting last night to watch the series finale of Lost last night. I'm so sad it's over! Mark and I had some of his yet-to-be-released new Syrah, Lost Soul to mark the occasion. Maybe his best yet! No, the name of the wine has nothing to do with the show, it's just a play on words referring to Mark losing the bottom of his foot in a fork lift accident a few years ago. Eeek. 

And my short ribs turned out pretty darn well also. This recipe is extremely easy and tasty with leftovers for days.

Well, back to quilting. I am in a little bit over my head with some grand idea I had to quilt the circles with in my Drunken Bohemian. But practice makes perfect I suppose. Please wish me luck!

And thank you all so much for visiting my quilt festival quilt and all the lovely comments you left! I am seriously reconsidering tearing out all the quilting now. I think you're right - just a memento from my quilting beginning.

Zig Zag Sneak Peek

Lucy took a nice, long nap yesterday so I actually made some progress on my Old Red Barn Co. Zig Zag quilt.

She is 16 weeks old today!

This is my first-ever real quilt (well, I do have a few WIPs) and I am actually loving how it is coming together. The fabric is the fabulous My Folklore collection from Lecien purchased at superbuzzy. They had fat quarter bundles! I am doing a simple 1/4 inch on each side of the zig zags, which is going pretty well - I did spend a good hour with my seam ripper however!

Thank you to Amy and Dana from the Flickr group for leading the quilt along. It has been so invaluable to a new mom like me who wants to learn to quilt but can't get away for a class to have this instruction and support. The next quilt along begins September 1rst and will be led by quiltdad, who is leading us through Wonky Log Cabin blocks. I'm super excited for this one and will reveal my fabric choices soon. I will hopefully be done with the Zig Zag this week and post the finished product!