Folksy Chevron Quilt

I finally finished my chevron quilt! I'm so excited!

It was made to exactly fit the strange dimensions of our Ikea guest bed. The bottom drawers pull out to make a double bed, but the quilt I made is designed to just fit it as a single bed, mostly so the room looks good for the majority of the year when no one is staying in it.

Again, I didn't use a pattern for this quilt. I just made enough blocks to test the width and could then figure out how many I would need to fit the length. The pieced blocks are half squares, so the only real difficulty is making sure your points don't get cut off when you're attaching the rows of chevrons together. My new machine made this process much easier than it used to be with my reliable, yet basic, Brother machine.

I decided to quilt along the chevron pattern and I am happy with the end result. The quilting was really difficult to keep the lines straight in the center because the bulk of the rest of the quilt under the machine's arm required a little more pushing and pulling on my part. Had the lines been straight - side-to-side - this would have been easier. However, the zig-zag pattern added just enough difficulty to make me skew the lines so much that the stitching had to be ripped out of three rows. I then had to re-do the quilt sandwich and re-do all the safety pinning for more than half the quilt. Not a happy moment. 

I'm thrilled with it! The look is interesting and colorful, yet clean and modern. As I mentioned before, with the pocket pillow I completed first, the fabric is from a retro print Anthology line that I bought as a collection of around a dozen fat quarters.

The binding is a mix of two similar shades of Kona green from my stash that I alternated, mostly because I didn't want to go out and buy more fabric, and also for a little something different. I also hand-stitched the binding.

I knew I wanted a tangerine color for the back - something that would be bright, happy, and unexpected from the front. The fabric is Kona cotton in Cheddar. Mmmm....cheese - what's not to like there? I love how the uniform color really shows of the quilted lines on the back.

And that's it! Our guest room is another step closer to having better personality. My plan is to do one or two body pillows to set against the wall so the bed is more couch-like and we can sit in there for a little reading retreat.

Now, on to tackle the walls and the mis-matched furniture on the other side of the room!

We'll be enjoying the rest of our Sunday with a heap of kids books and some of the nice light that we've been getting late into the evening.

 Have a great rest of your weekend! 

Inspiration

 Where do you get your inspiration? For a long time, I think I got most of my inspiration from inspired people, rather than really being inspired myself. This is still partly true, of course - I read a lot of creative blogs, books, and follow creative people on Pinterest. But I’m finding myself a little changed from three years ago, when I first began sewing - changed at least in the personal creativity department.

Before full-time motherhood, I just didn’t have any extra time to take in the things in that I now can. I did what I could with my limited free time, but now that I have more of it - or rather, am able to better organize what I want to do in a week, I find that I am far more open to being inspired by things myself, rather than someone else’s interpretation. The setting of a room, the shadow of a tree on a sidewalk, the color of the the tiles in a public bathroom - I’m much more open to the subtle beauty of little things around me. Beauty in a public bathroom? Exactly.

I’ve been reading this blog lately, and have been truly moved to see things through a different lens. There is a quietness to her photography that I just love. This post in particular resonated hard with me. The point is, inspiration comes the more open you are to it - and for me, the quieter the moment, the clearer it is.

There is also nothing like a new place to make me notice things I would ordinarily walk right by. We were in Germany last month and I found so much inspiration - feeling foreign must surely heighten the experience. The color of a blooming tree against an apartment building, and even the backdrop of a drab gray sky gave me a fantastic idea for a quilt. The architecture in the zoo's botanical gardens...and the flowers, flowers, flowers. Flowers are probably pretty obvious inspiration, but I just had to include them here. They’re like gobs of fluffy whipped cream on the perfectly sweet cake that is SPRING.

This month, I am very inspired.

The only real downside to lots of inspiration...?

...That would probably be the realization that there just isn't enough time to do it all.

Pillow Projects

I've been busy doing lots of springy things - more light for longer during the day mean lots more motivation for me to get projects both started and finished! Aside for growing a proper vegetable garden for the first time in over six years, I've taken on our sad little guest room. Because we have a small house with no convenient storage space, the guest room tends to be the room we use to chuck unused suitcases and extra piles of seasonal clothes that are between our drawers and the attic.

Slowly, I found a better spot for our suitcases, which are actually in constant use with my husband's business travel. Then I began stocking my Pinterest boards with ideas I wanted to put to use for our new day bed. A new sized bed means a happy excuse to make another quilt! And perhaps even a pillow or two to liven things up.

I've been saving some retro print fabric I bought a few months ago from an Anthology fabric line. I was inspired by the modern lines in a few chevron patterned quilts I pinned from some of my favorite blogs and flickr members, so I decided to combine the folksy 70's prints with a stark white Kona cotton to get a fusion of folksy and minimalistic design.

This is the quilt top so far. I decided to order a solid tangerine fabric for the backing, and I plan to use a dark navy for the binding. My plan is to quilt along with the main chevron pattern to emphasize the lines.

And that brings me to the pillow I made with the leftover fabric scraps! The author of A Cuppa and a Catch Up had some great patterns, but the Pillow Pocket pattern really inspired me.  I happen to have a little girl who loves hiding little toys in any pocket she might find, so this just had to be - even if the pillow wasn't strictly for her.

The pattern was brilliant. Absolutely no hiccups, everything was well explained, and all measurements were perfect! The whole thing probably came together in 3-4 hours, all told. I machine stitched everything into place, including the appliquéd Dresden "flower", but added hand quilting around the flower itself, and just outside the yellow center (all done within a single Skype conversation with my inlaws - now there's multitasking!).  The only modification I made was to make the center of the flower 1/2" smaller than in the pattern because I wanted more of the petals to be exposed.

I really like the contrasting fabrics on the back and loved the simple and quick lined quilting of each piece. The fact that there is cotton batting in each layer of the pillow case means that the pillow has a nice stiff body to it, and the end result looks very professional. I'm thrilled with Nova's patterns and couldn't recommend this particular pattern more - her explanations were far simpler than many of my pattern books by more famous authors.

I'm so delighted with the success I've had on Pinterest. I think moderate pinning is the key to not feeling like an inadequate housewife in the face of amazing, yet unrealistic pins you may find on there. There are so many talented, creative people online - I'm constantly grateful for all of the tips and inspiration!

I decided to include another pillow I made a few months ago. My daughter made this sweet little drawing that I wanted to preserve in a unique way. I've seen blog posts on replicating children's artwork on textiles, but I feel like I haven't seen anything quite the same. I tell my husband that this is her "soul" drawing :).

I took her original drawing and darkened the lines with permanent marker so that I could trace the illustration onto the cream colored fabric. Using a washable tracing pen, I exactly traced the drawing onto the cotton, making sure to include all of the shaky wobbles made by her then three-year-old hand. Then, I embroidered over the pen marks using a thick split stitch, my favorite.  I usually keep this on the couch in my living room and I never get tired of looking at it.

Learning New Things

Source: handmadecathygaubert.blogspot.com via April on Pinterest

If I get a spare minute tomorrow, this will be my inspiration. Today, I made a mini-quilt (mug rug) to practice piecing pinwheels and working on my free-motion quilting. I have to say, free-motion quilting is way harder than it looks in all of the YouTube videos! The movement of the fabric under the quilting foot does not feel natural and getting the coordination between the fabric movement and the speed of the machine....let's just say my pacing needs work.

And I don't know about you, but doing a short, cute project always boosts my confidence enough to go back to the tougher thing I was fleeing from in the first place.

Scandinavian Houses II

I have been working hard this week. This is a quilt wall-hanging I made for a new baby's nursery. I am pretty happy with the result. It's a modification of my original Scandinavian Houses quilt, using more neutral shades of gray and navy, since the mother doesn't know yet if she's having a boy or a girl.

I'm going to add a few more details by hand - a button doorknob perhaps...maybe some hand quilting around the sun. There are a lot of different details involved - some simple appliqué, along with standard piecing, then minimal free-form quilting.

The top corners of the quilt back have these handy little pockets for inserting a rigid dowel to hang the whole thing from two hooks on each side. Normally, for a wall-hanging, you would use a longer, even sturdier sleeve to insert a thin plank along the top back. But, I came up with this design in case the mother decided to actually use the quilt; the pockets are small and inconspicuous enough not to be noticed when in use. It's possible that there is an even better way to suit both uses - I am still learning so much with sewing that I feel my mind will never get tired of it, even though my shoulders are killing me!

A Whole Lot of Pfaff

I am wonderfully tired. I spent every spare moment of the day in my creative zone and accomplished much. So, I'm rewarding myself with some couch time, a glass of bourbon, and a pretty golden box of truffles. Also, there is a steaming bag of hot water on my neck.

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Oh.Yeah.
(The music in my head is what plays when Ferris Bueller's BFF reveals his dad's sports car)

I got a new sewing machine. It's a Pfaff 2056. A brand I had never even heard of until three weeks ago. A heavy metal, Swedish-made work horse that does things I didn't even know could be done. A machine I couldn't afford in the US shop I found it in, but by some miracle,  I found one on ebay that was within driving distance from my house - at more than half the price. I spent about three days sweating over the decision while I was visiting at my mom's house in Minnesota. One look in my eyes and my mom said, "You've got the fever, haven't you?" She doesn't even sew, but she knew what she was talking about.

Made in Sweden. OH. YEAH.
That makes me happy.

I flew back home to the UK and a few days later made the trek across the English Midlands in search of my new machine. Ever since, I find excuses to run to the machine - "What's that, honey? You left your mittens in Minnesota? Let me whip up a pair!" In 20 minutes there were mittens. Never mind that they were too small - there were mittens in 20 minutes!!!

So I have been sewing little bits of spontaneous projects between doing up several orders I have received from my etsy shop. I'm working on another bunting banner made entirely from one little boy's baby bibs. The mother actually had a bib for every American holiday during his first year, as well as several other cute little bibs, and a hospital receiving blanket. There were a lot of different sizes involved so the final design was a big compromise with what we wanted for length while keeping the best of the bibs still in the bunting. There are 16 bibs in all sizes, so we decided to alternate squares and triangles, since the triangular shape would not support most of the motifs. I think it is turning out really nicely so far, but I will be sure to post the final photos.

I'm also working on a quilt commission, that will also include full bedding for a nursery. It's a bit of a daunting project, but the quilt is based on my Scandinavian Houses quilt design so it is more free form and enjoyable for me to do.

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So. That is why I have a hot water bottle strapped to my neck!

Fit for a Queen

Sew Mama Sew has been running a Sewing Reflections + Predictions series for 2011 and 2012 and posed a number of questions to its readers regarding personal views of accomplishments and things to come. When I read the question, what did you make that you're most proud of? I decided to delurk and participate. 

only a small piece of the beautiful mess i made on floor for four months

The thing I'm most proud of making in 2011 is most certainly my mom's quilt. I began it in August. From then on, it took up most of my free time. In fact, I had to shift things around to make time for the quilt - everyone around me was privy to its progress, which, in retrospect, may have made me a boring conversationalist. The planning, the color, the fabric, the design...then on to the piecing, the piles of unfinished blocks on the guest room floor, nagging my husband to stop stepping on them, stitch ripping, assembly...then on to the quilt sandwich, and...gasp...hand quilting (my first time ever)...the nights of watching The Wire and and stabbing myself with the needle for dividing my attention...all of this going on until the night before my flight back to the US on Christmas Eve eve when I was hurriedly going between packing and hand stitching the binding on.

four blocks pieced together, draped over a curtain rod in my sewing room

It was worth it.

hand-quilting is surprisingly very relaxing and i loved this part, possibly the most

my 3-yr-old took this photo!

I didn't even have time to wrap the quilt. Instead, I waited for a quiet moment away from all of the other gift opening on Christmas morning - and I did it in a room away from everyone else. The moment my mom saw the bundle of folded fabric, her lower lip dipped down into a deep frown and she began to cry. "You made me a quilt!" I had folded the quilt so that the top couldn't be seen right away - all she cold see was the yellow backing - but her happiness at whatever it might have on the other side wasn't important. She instantly recognized the effort for what it was and we were both crying before the quilt was even unfolded.

This was the most satisfying gift I've ever given - a gift where both the giver and the receiver felt the maximum pleasure possible. All of my worries about the color not being quite what I thought her style was, about the size and her bed, about the design, about whether she would appreciate it in the way I thought only another quilter could....all of that was nonsense. For every visitor we've had since Christmas, the quilt has come out. She finds ways of bringing into conversation. It makes me feel so good that my quilt was received in the same way it was created: with love.

finished! queen sized quilt with a 10.5" drop

So this is what I'm proudest of having made in 2011. I'd be delighted to have another such story by the end of 2012.

close up of the hand-quilting - i used size 8 embroidery cotton