Improv Bee Blocks

My first quilting bee blocks! Done! I was asked to make improv blocks including some solid white.  That's it, everything else was up to me! Now, I tend to be a bit of a Type-A personality...I like templates, directions, precise measurements, and I wasn't too sure about just sewing willy-nilly! It actually turned out to be pretty fun - I just grabbed some scraps that looked nice together and started with a strip set on the left block, and did the right block log-cabin-ish. I have to admit, there was a LOT of cutting!  I kept on re-wonky-ing them (re-wonky is a technical term, right?).

I can't wait to see what my bee buddies have sewed up for January's project!

On ironing in a snowstorm

 This was the view from our back porch right at the beginning of the storm yesterday...

 We are currently on day two of school cancellations because of winter storm Hercules blowing through New England.  It may be four degrees Fahrenheit out right now, but in my sewing room,

 there is steam.  There's something about being near a hot, steamy iron that warms fingers frozen from shoveling. At least I had help!

From feeling the steam on your face, to touching the fabric after it's been pressed, it is better than a hot cup of cocoa. And less calories too! My sewing room is right above our downstairs porch, so there is minimal insulation, and that means wool socks, fleecy sweaters and lots of ironing!

 And here's the Dogwood Blossom wall hanging all sashed up and ready to be quilted and hung.

 Now, how am I supposed to find batting in a blizzard?

Happy New Year!

It's time to take stock for the New Year! I'd like to have a year filled with family, fun, and of course creativity! Last year for me was the year of mechanization.  I learned to drive a car again (live in Cambridge too long and driving skills go kaput) and I started to become more proficient with my .Brother sewing machine.

This year, I'm to make a list of projects I'd like to see myself tackling in the new year. If I declare it publicly, there is accountability, and I'm more likely to be motivated to get sewing! (Not that I need motivation, but you never know!)

Penny Patch Sampler:

from www.stitchedincolor.com

I know I'm late for the party on this one, but the idea of fine-tuning my piecing, paper piecing and applique skills just seemed too good to pass up.  I bought her online course, when she offered it as an E-Book after the live class ended.  There's SO much info, and side practice projects - so worth it! I'm currently working on the applique Dogwood Blossoms quilt, which I'm making into a wallhanging with only four blocks.

Here's the Dogwood Blossom Quilt from Stitched in Color, so pretty and sweet! Love her work!

 Join a Quilting Bee:

Done! I'm very excited about this one, since besides teaching, I've not participated in many of the social activities that so many bloggers enjoy. I looked on Flickr to see which bees are looking for people, and found a very nice bee run by Mrs. Pickle Garden (It must be fate! Pickle fans stick together!) called We Bee With It. It runs from January - June, so there are six sewists contributing 2 blocks a month and each month one of the sewists decides on the blocks, and gets them mailed to her house! I can't think of anything nicer than getting blocks from around the country, the only thing nicer is getting to make blocks for other people!  Another way to stretch creativity and technical expertise.  The first block is an improv block with no color rules, just add in some white somewhere. I can't wait to dive in my stash box and get sewing on this one.

The Farmer's Wife:

I just got this book, and it is chock-full of blocks and stories.  I live right outside of Boston, within walking distance to the subway, and this book had me dreaming of moving out to the country and homesteading! (my engineer husband would probably not last very long farming, unless he had some sort of agricultural laboratory.) I have seen others translate these very traditional, and beautiful blocks to something fresh, modern and colorful. Here's one from My Rainboots are Red:
 

Isn't it beautiful?  I'm excited to play with fabric choices and work on this quilt throughout the year, in between other projects.

Zakka:

I just love this Japanese word which means any little thing that improves your home, life, or appearance.  It sums up the kind of projects I like to do in between large, epic quilt projects. It keeps me excited about creating, that little jolt of having a finished project can be very satisfying. On my annual trip to Northern Virginia to visit my in-laws, I picked up Patchwork Please!, and it has some great, practical projects that will be great for gift giving, and for having around the house. The mail organizer was a big hit with my husband. 

This is from Creativemomentscary on Flickr

My mother in law insisted on paying for the book, since we were out buying books with the kids, so I'm going to sew up some projects for her home!

I hope everyone is having a lovely, relaxing New Years Day! Here's to 2014!
 

Holiday Haiku

enjoy busy kids,

hope for many handmade treats,













wait, did I get coal?

Photo evidence...

This totally happened! In my house! Sitting still - and sewing! The both of them! Oh, happy day!

Jonah (the big guy in the green) is embroidering a picture of Super Mario he drew, and I transferred with fabric marker to burlap.  Nate (the slightly less big guy in the red) is making a circle pillow project out of the Sewing School book using monkey fabric (he's in the Monkey Class in pre-K).

Beer and Babies!

 An unlikely combination, but today's finished objects are all about beer...

Beer themed table runner for my beer brewing brother (say that five times fast!)

and babies!!!

Quilt done for baby Luci, my cousin's brand - new daughter!

I love how the wood-grained look fabric makes a great background block for the disappearing nine patch block. I used 'wood' for blocks 1,3,7 and 9, and beer patches for 2, 4, 6 and 8, and Kona Brown for the middle block (5).

 A couple slices down the middle and across , and a bit of rotating, and sewing, and it all came together in an afternoon in between tending to a stomach-buggy six year old. (after which I could have probably used a pint of beer...)

 Here's the full view of Luci's quilt! So ziggy! and zaggy! I combined loopy free motion quilting on the white zigs and walking feet straight lines on the purple zags.

WIP Wednesday

Sewing here has been mostly plowing through small projects to complete Christmas presents.  I've been especially fond of making journal covers.  They make great teacher gifts, and being a teacher myself, I have lots of those to give out! I used this All People Quilt tutorial for the bottom two journals (country chic to mom, the other one to Jonah's first grade teacher).  I was browsing through Stitched in Color and found this tutorial based on the All People Quilt one, with some modifications. I made the top three using that tutorial, with some additions - it's very easy to improvise on these journals, it's so much fun!

 

This one is for Miss Jill, our sons' amazing baby sitter.  She's been a part of our family since Jonah (my oldest) has been 4 months old.  She was an undergraduate then, and now after getting her MEd in Early Childhood, she's has gone back to grad school for social work! Almost done! I wanted to use fabrics that evoke playfulness, and the kids throwing paper airplanes did the trick.  I used Wonder Under to secure the heart and the 'J', and then stitched in place all around.

Can you tell how much Nate loves her? The boys argue about who gets to marry her when they get to be grownups.

 Talula is the art teacher where I work and she is also a working artist - check out her etsy shop! I wanted to do something fun and funky for her! I strip-pieced a few fun fabrics to a much larger size than the journal requires s) and then sliced at gentle angles, resewed and trimmed it down to the right size for the journal (final cut is at 29.5 x 12 inches).  Next time, I'll do two sets of strip pieces and stack and shuffle, so I get the same effect without as much fabric waste.  But I can always play with scraps, right?

Jonah's first grade teacher is pretty stylish, so I wanted to do something fun, but not too loud, so she can use it anywhere. Plus, I don't know her very well, so I wanted to play it safe with the fabric choices.

This one is for Mom, also a teacher, who loves lists and can always use a notebook, and loves country chic style!

 

 This one posed a bit of a problem. I teach science and other fun things at an after-school program, and the director is a gymnastics expert.  The fabric was a great fit, but I miscalculated the placement of the applique star and T.  

 I needed to balance things out, so I dragged out trim that I thought would match. I had ricrac, ribbon and leftover binding strips.

 I went with the binding strips, created a tube and top-stitched it down - and it saved the day, and added a nice sporty stripe! She is very sporty, so happy accident!

 Here's the WIP (work in progress) section of this post - I have a brother who loves to brew his own beer, so I got this fabric with beery goodness...cut it into charm squares (5 inches) and then...pfft...no inspiration! What do I do for him? Thank you to Freshly Pieced for hosting these WIP Wednesdays! This work is only beginning its progress...so it needs a kick in the pants!