yes, i sewed something

Can you believe it? No, me either.

I sewed more the past two days than I have in the past two months.

I needed a little Spring pick-me-up project. Something to get me out of the work-week routine blues.
And, I had thrifted this adorable little frame last week for $3 and almost instantly had a vision for what I wanted to put in it.


Just like that, problems solved.

But then I had a new problem. In order to make one of these blocks, I had to make seven of these blocks.
[it was made with this quilt tutorial vaguely in mind; I started with seven 13" squares, and instead of cutting into a nine-patch, I cut them in a radial pattern]
So, what to do with the remaining six?


Duh.


An idea of the scale, and my crazy long toes.
Also, crazy sunset lighting.


I didn't want the blocks to get lost by being next to each other. But, I didn't have enough white in my stash for sashing. Then I remembered this almost-white sheet I thrifted the other day! Okay, so maybe it's a little (a lot) busy...but I dig it. I think it might benefit from some strategic quilting. Though, that step could be years from now, so I'm going to try not to think too hard about it. ;)

I have returneth

I won't sit around and whine about why I've been more absent lately. I'll just say, sorry, and show you the few good, happy things surrounding me right now!



Look at what my amazing mom sent me as a surprise! She searched online for the perfect pair of scissors for me. I asked her, why, you know I have like 10 pairs of scissors? and she said, yeah, but now you have a pair from me! I love her so much. They're beautiful. I'm almost afraid to use them.



Working on quilt bee blocks. I was pretty impressed when I thought to use clips to keep my strips together.



Really need to force myself to finish the binding on this little baby quilt. It's a surprise gift for a friend, and I probably need to get it to her before the baby is born! :)



My bruise from Courtney vs The Guy On the Bike in which Courtney Totally Wins has almost healed! Can you differentiate between bruise and freckle?



My little hexagon pincushion was featured in this amazing teal-and-red treasury in honor of Sewing Machine Day (September 10th)! I'm so honored, it's full of beautiful items. You can check it out here. I really hope it makes it to the front page, I would just die!


p.s. You may have noticed I just enabled Google AdSense ads. I hate how vague they are with how much they pay, so I'm really just trying it out until I see if it's worth it. If it's going to make like $5 a year, no thanks. It would be nice if it could at least cover my monthly etsy fees, though. Anyway, I mention this because I'd like to hear your (honest) opinions on it. Super tacky? Moderate annoyance? Don't even notice? A few people on my feed use it, I've noticed. It doesn't really bother me, I just think, huh...weird. Have you used it? What was your experience?

more on the quilts

Yesterday evening our power went out right as we were about to cook dinner, so we decided to go out instead, and of course we didn't think to call it in until after we got back. Result?

* first episode of the new Project Runway didn't record (and isn't playing again until Saturday? gah! Bravo how I miss thee!)

* I didn't have time to list those quilts on etsy

* I had no idea what to do!

So, I basted a quilt in the dark. Yep. It was around 8:30 when we got back so there was still a bit of twilight outside at first. But by the halfway point I was working mostly by feel with the occasional help from a flashlight. Hah! I would show you my handiwork but this one is a gift for a friend, and though I doubt she reads my blog, there's always a chance.

Anyway, I got the little guys up today...




[more images at the listing]




[more images on my flickr and at the listing here]

Carbonmade

Have you all heard of this place?
I just came across it today. It's pretty dang cute. If I wasn't already knee-deep in paypal, etsy, and flickr fees, I might sign up for a Whoo! account (at $12/month it hits way harder than flickr...like, five times harder, and offers much less storage & exposure).

But I did sign up for a free account, just for fun:
cjsews.carbonmade.com

I'm thinking of starting up a commission list for Christmas orders. Worth a try! Otherwise I will keep working on building up stock for when the time comes. :) Also thinking of letting go of some of my 'personal stock' of quilts. So sad to see them go unused.

Although it does make my day to hear Mark say "Can I have another quilt? I want to cover up. I love you. I love you for making lots of quilts." Aww!

new work

My first ever for-sale quilt is complete! I'm so proud of myself.








It's already listed over at the shop.

And yesterday I finally found some time to do a little vintage photo shoot...the film is getting developed today so I will start editing (and listing...hopefully) tomorrow!

In the meantime here's a little "behind the scenes" look at what will be included...

castle peep progress

The winds, rain, and lighting (eek! it just hit...close!) were on my heels, so this was a quick snap. Top is finished, and I have big plans for the quilting and binding. I've never done what I'm planning before, so we'll see.

castle peeps

Finally getting around to cutting into my stack of happy...



Half-hexagons are for me...



3" squares are to sell (hopefully!).

trend alert, hexies

Yup, you heard it here first, english paper-pieced hexagons are the new hot thing! Wait, what? You already knew? I'm the last person on the entire blogplanet to post about them? Damn.



I'm auditing background colors for my vintage feed sack hexi semi-flowers.

I want to do a two-tone monochromatic pieced background, with the florets appliqued randomly on top.



I think pink has already won my heart.

Also considering doing several different versions, I have a TON of scraps...and I don't want there to be too many florets in the design. But I am getting a little bored with making them, at least out of this fabric!

sunday stash #10

Wow-eee it's been a long time since I've done one of these. I promise to try to be more consistent.



Do entire quilt tops count as a stash? Yup I think so, I mean, I bought it this way. And it's made of fabrics. Fabrics that I love! For the most part...

Some of the whites are weirdly thin, some of the off-whites used are weirdly peachy, some of the solids are too shiny. But, I think once it's all quilted and washed and ready to be loved (finally), it will all come together. Poor thing.

I'm thinking a light blue solid backing (matching the color of the flowers) with white quilting. Not too traditional, but keeping it simple, right?

lots of projects

One way I've discovered to keep myself motivated & productive is to allow free-range.

Like, if I'm cleaning up my room and come across an old project I never got around to, I'll work on it. Or if I have some crazy new sewing idea, I'll do it (instead of writing it down or plain old forgetting about it). I might never finish anything this way, but for certain times it seems very applicable.

Here's what I've got going right now...


"Canvas", primed. Mark gave me this old peg board that he had prepped to be hung on the wall, for my sewing room. I want to do some kind of abstract painting on it before I hang it up, but I'm lost, as usual. I tried to find some inspiration online & came up with a bunch of nothing.

Oh and incidentally, does anyone know of a good source for peg board hooks? The ones at Lowe's were SO expensive and not even the size I wanted, and I can't find anything good and affordable online either.


A little mindless, pretty sewing that makes my heart flutter! (I do have a hopefully less-than-mindless plan for these, though.) In my newest Pyrex, a pattern/shape I hadn't seen in person yet, yay.


And a bit of quilty art. Yup, I decided to branch out and try something new. Still needs binding, label, and hanging hook, then I'll share the whole thing. :)

Oh my golly I think I got twenty mosquito bites while I was outside taking these. I love summer but eeek, no fun!

thursday mini-quilt

Since I've been keeping up the Tuesday Treasury successfully for a few weeks, I thought I'd tried to add another weekly feature!

A month or so ago I found this book...



for $2.99 at Borders. Honestly, it's not very good! The piecing directions are frustrating and useless, and most of the fabric choices/combinations are either boring or visually offensive. Truthfully, I'm very difficult to please when it comes to quilting books. But, hey, there's a reason it was in the bargain section, you know?

Anyway, despite its shortcomings, it's a pretty good reference if you're looking for some blocks to make. Very straightforward and encyclopedic.

Since I don't really make quilts with "blocks" in the traditional sense, I decided to work my way through it, making single-block mini-quilts.





The machine "blanket stitch" was really fun to play with. Oh, and the binding? That would be single fold bias tape (folded in half, of course), making it a very scant 1/4" on each side! I really love the affect though, so I think I'll keep using it.



Next time I'll probably hand-stitch the loop area, which was a bit difficult to do on the machine.

Oh, and it's for sale over here.

I'll have a new one for you next Thursday!

latest quiltyness

Don't think I've stopped sewing or anything!



A little mini quilt using this pattern. When I saw her block, I knew I had to make one immediately. When I was halfway through cutting out the 88 1.5" squares (actually, I made mine 2"), I knew I was only going to make one.



But it was a great opportunity to practice stipple quilting! So so fun, I love the way it looks like brains on the back (hah!). Don't think I could stand doing it on a full size quilt, though, so I see many more minis in my future (or as Mark likes to call them, "face quilts").

I also couldn't resist the urge to finally break in to my selvedge stash...



Yumm. Thinking of making two identical minis in this manner: the slate grey with the selvedge plus a bit of print (as the above block demonstrates), and then a black or charcoal with just selvedges showing.

I've got work to do!

log cabin love

I can't believe that a week ago this was just a stack of half-finished four year old blocks in my "to-do/never-going-to-do" pile.



I love it. It's funny how in the beginning I was planning on straight setting these. Wow, look at how wonky those center blocks are! I'm glad I went with it. Every time I turn around I beam at how perfect it is.



It pretty much consumed me, I couldn't work on anything else until it was done. Now, the quilting part on this one doesn't excite me as much...have no idea what direction I'm going to take it (any ideas?)...so off to other projects I go! This is staying on the wall as just a quilt top for now.

tutorial: wonky sashing

What do you do when you end up with a bunch of wonky quilt blocks?
Why, you make them look like you did it on purpose!

You could do this with any square block, but I specifically chose to add the sashing in the log cabin style to be cohesive with the log cabin blocks.


1. Measure your block(s). Mine seem to be about 6.5". Now how big do you want them to be with the sashing? I decided I wanted mine to be 7.5" (that makes a 7" finished size).

7.5" [final size] - 6.5" [current size] = 1" + 4(.5") [seam allowance] + 1" [allowance for trimming/making wonky] = 3" [total width of sashing needed]


2. Cut four different sizes of sashing strips. Mine were 1", 1.25", 1.75", and 2". Whatever size you cut them to, make sure that both A+D and B+C equal the total width of sashing needed. [In my case, 1+2=3 and 1.25+1.75=3]


3. Starting with C, sew the strips on to the block. I chain piece, leaving the sashing strip intact (see above image).





Of course, don't forget to make sure A and D are across from each other, and B and C are across from each other!


4. Always starting at the narrowest (A) side, use your ruler and rotary cutter to make a cut slightly crooked to the block. Don't forget to leave room for seam allowance, the smallest sliver should never be less than .25".


5. Rotate block to the right. Lining up your quilting ruler against the cut you just made (which should now be facing you), make a 90 degree cut to square up your second side.


6. Rotate your block to the right. Line up the left and bottom edges on your mat. Cut the right edge to size (in my case, I would make a cut at the 7.5" mark). Rotate your block to the right one last time and cut this edge to size as well.


7. Your finished block should be perfectly square, perfectly sized, and perfectly wonky! Yay!



Also, oh man I am so bad at writing clear directions! If you have any questions just add them in the comments and I will give it my all to not fumble through the answer.

home alone

What's a girl to do when her live-in boyfriend goes out of town for a Japandroids (jealuzzz) concert?

Go thrifting on the way home from work because there's no one to call and ask where you are. There's also no one to see you come home with a couple bags of 'stuff' and ask "what the hell is all this for?!"


This was a set of three, but the Boston Fern was my favorite. Bahaha, yeah, those fern-y things actually come out from the embroidery, with a basket embroidered underneath. So weird. We were also just talking a couple days ago about getting a hanging fern for the loft, voila!


'AA' is our loft unit. These are bigger than normal blocks, and flat on the back (judging from the other blocks at the store, they used to spell "AARON"). Not sure where to put them yet, but yay. We had thought about getting two A's for our wall months ago!


Can't say no to a delicate little vintage tablecloth. It's super yellowed and very faded on one side, but the pattern is so unusual. I think it might fit our table (and go great with the chairs!) if I ever clean the thing off, oops.

Do some sewing. Watch some more project runway (yup, I'm hooked again).


I started these blocks nearly 4 years ago. Yeah!! I remember sitting in the floor of my first apartment, cutting out the fabrics for it, after recieving my first ever order from reprodepot. It was one of those scrap packs. I kept asking my then-boyfriend and then-best-friend for their opinion. I think they might actually be the first blocks I ever machine pieced....and I'm so happy to say they're done! Next up, some wonky white sashing.


Okay, I probably won't actually sew with this amazing vintage feedsack fabric for a long time (or ever), but I do keep staring at longingly...

And now I'm pretty sure I'm going to go get some ice cream! This is the life...when are you coming home, Mark? Oh, tonight? Hm.