Recents

Just a few images that hopefully capture some of the goings on in my studio this week.

 

 

Bolt ends from my new collection, From Outside In

 

The beginnings of a new Twinkle Quilt

Experimenting with some of the prints in my new collection

Lots going on in my studio, but there's always time to make a new dress.

Making Multiples

I was about to start off this post with a bold-faced lie. Well, not exactly a lie, so much as being less than honest with myself. I had intended to open by saying that I almost never make multiples of things just like I almost never read the same book twice.
But, you know what? That's not true. In fact the opposite is true. Not that I read the same book twice, that part is accurate, but that I make multiples. Especially when it comes to garment sewing.
Here's proof:

See? I made all these, plus one I gave away, over the course of this past summer.
Don't get too impressesed though, they are beyond easy to make and very quick as well.
My pattern was Burda Style 7509 and it is everything a pattern should be: clear, simple, and capable of helping you craft a truly wearable item.
Somewhat off topic: I've promised myself that I would really, really learn Photoshop this year instead of relying on the same techniques I always use or tinkering around aimlessly and coming up with something I like, but can't repeat, so here's my "collage" of my Burda tanks. I still have so much to learn, but at least I'm taking the first step.

It was almost as fun to create the collage as it was to sew the tanks. I think I'll make multiples here too!

The Breakfast Club

My post has only a very little to do with that wonderful 80's movie, The Breakfast Club, but I needed a title and the movie did actually start me down memory lane.
Confused yet? I am and I'm writing this.
It all began last night...sort of.
I've been working on a mini quilt to add to my store and over the weekend had finished the quilting and was ready to bind.
Last night being the last night of my daughter's summer vacation, she said she wanted to watch the Breakfast Club with me.
"We can stream it through Netflix, Mom, " she said. " It's a classic."
I remember being in High School when this movie came out and going to the theater to see it. No streaming then.
Next thing you know we're settling in on her bed, laptop perched on her lap, and preparing to enjoy this now classic movie.
In the interest of having something to post here today, I decided to use the time to finish the binding on the quilt and then it struck me, " Tomorrow is Monday. I used to have a weekly feature on my blog and even a related Flickr group called Mini Quilt Monday."
There you have it, my brief trip down memory lane, recounted here so I could post this:

I previously mentioned that in cleaning(read excavating) my studio, I found various bits of patchwork that I had set aside for one reason or another. The center portion of this mini quilt and another were mostly dyed to look like improvisationally pieced Double Wedding Ring blocks.
I added more improv strips, quilted it in concentric circles from the center out, and bound it while watching Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson, now 45 and 53, respectively, act out their teenage angst.

Pretty good times and good memories.

From Outside In

That's the name of my new fabric collection for Moda Fabrics and I couldn't be more excited.

I took this super-quick preview shot yesterday after I laid all 33 prints, 6 solids, and 1 cheater cloth print (yes, there's a cheater print in this collection too) out on my dining table. These are just a few and they are all beautiful!
See the one on the very far right? Well I'm washing that one today to prep it for this pattern, but with this modification.
And I'm thinking about re-creating this pillow with the stripes in my new collection.
And I have plans for a quilt that features the prints set against a neutral background. Maybe with some curved piecing for extra, good measure.
I wasn't planning on having today's post be about these fabrics, but when I opened the box(all 78 pounds of it), I got so excited, I knew I would share at least a tidbit about this with you all today.
Now it's back to the projects I was working on and clearing some shelf space for these new beauties.
Have a great weekend!

Abi's Ladder

I had so (that's so, not sew) many ideas for what I wanted to post about today.
First off, I added some new items and re-stocked a few in my store and thought to blog about that. Then I installed my famous hanging line seen here and here and here and in practically every quilt image I've taken over the past few years.
And finally, I helped my youngest hang the quilt that used to be her crib quilt in her new room, in our new house.
So (or is it sew?) many options.
Well, I decided that because I'm deeply sentimental at heart, I would talk about Abi's quilt.

I made the quilt before she was ever born and the gal just turned 16, so it ain't brand new. Add to that she used it. I mean really used it. It was her bed quilt for the first year of her life. Did I mention that she wore cloth diapers. Get the picture? It's been washed...a lot.
Yet, I think, it's still quite beautiful.
The pattern, I use that term very roughly, is an improvised Jacob's Ladder. And, for those of you who wonder about the wash fastness of hand dyed fabric, all the cottons in this quilt are my own hand dyes.

I think they've stood up very well.
I've always had a special place in my heart for this quilt, understandably so. I'm so(sew) happy my girl wants to have it up where she can see it, enjoy it, and maybe even tell her friends about it, though I suspect she might leave out the part about the cloth diapers necessitating multiple washings.

Seattle Inspiration

I've been in Seattle this week and have so many inspiring images which I hope to share here in the next few weeks. I also hope these patterns, colors, and shapes will make their way into future quilt and fabric designs.

For today though they're just beautiful images. The ones I'm featuring today come from a single Seattle landmark, the   Seattle Public Library. 

Designed by Rems Koolhaas, it is, in a word, fantabulous. Here are a few images that inspired me and I hope will do the same for you.

Strips of Stripes Pillow

As promised here is my most recent striped creation:

The finished pillow measures about 20" x 20", so it's very generously sized.

I free motion machine quilted it on with diagonal lines spaced about 1/4" apart. It's definitely a weekend project and easy on the fabric stash as it only used 4 fat quarters and the little bits of orange fabric for the centers. In fact, I used the remains of that orange fat quarter o craft the zippered backing.
This version was made out of my a stitch in color stripes, but I'm curious to see what it would look like in some shirting stripes or Kaffe Fassett shot cotton stripes. And, there's always the possibility of expanding it into a full size quilt!

Strips of Stripes

A few days ago I saw this image on Pinterest. And loved it.
First off, I'm a huge fan of log cabins, in all their varieties and, secondly, I love the way she used a variety of fabrics without any one fabric seeming to fight for attention.
Side note: If I were you, which I'm not, but let's pretend, I'd click on that image and get taken to the maker's flickr page where I would see many lovely creations.
Now, I have a lot of images in my  Pinterest Inspirations Board, 882 to be exact, so I can't respond to every image that moves me, but I wanted to respond to this one.
And, in the course of doing so, discovered or rather had the opportunity to re-interpret something old in a new way.
Confused yet? I am.
Anyway, I started by re-imaging the log cabin/courthouse steps pattern in my own fabrics. Unlike the original, I opted to limit my palette to 4 fabrics. The fabrics weren't particularly special or cohesive, just 4 different prints from my Simple Marks Summer collection.

I'd love to say that I was overjoyed with the result and include scads of pictures documenting the process and product. I'd love to say that, but it wouldn't be true. I liked some things about the way the pieces fit together and made a secondary image, but I didn't like the lack cohesion that I thought the prints used created. The fabric didn't support the structure of the pattern. 

So, I decided to try the same idea, but with fabrics that, though they're technically prints, have essentially the same structure.

Stripes. Stripes cut into strips that when pieced together make even more stripes.

This solution and the finished result made me think about how much I love working with stripes. So,  I thought I'd feature some other striped projects I've made in the past.

BTW- This is just a selection of my striped creations because when I started searching my flickr page for examples, I discovered there way too many to include in one post and that the most recent striped item will need to be the focus of tomorrow's post. I guess I really, really, like stripes.