Modern She Made Swap

I joined a swap on flickr called Modern She Made. There are something like 100 participants, and no one knows who is making a gift for them. You aren’t allowed to tell the person that you’re making a gift for that you have them. My person stated that she loved bright colors, especially on a white background. The stipulation of this round of the swap is that your creation has to have a circular element to it. It took me a while to think of what I could do that would be cute while at the same time incorporating a circle of some sort. I’m pretty happy with the way this table runner has turned out. I may make myself another one of these days! haha. Here is what the back looks like. I had my machine quilting a loose wavy line along the outline of the design. Then I outlined the outline, loosely, a couple times. I think it looks very fun & festive for springtime & summer.

LDQB 2012: May

In May there are 2 people assigned, so I got to make 2 blocks! Still feeling a little paranoid from my failed attempts in April, I jumped into making my blocks this past weekend for May so that if something didn’t work out I would have plenty of time to fix it! Luckily, I think I won’t need to do any fixing for my May blocks. Phew!

The first one I made was a pinwheel block for Leanne. She asked for red, white, and/or pink pinwheels. Leanne lives in New South Wales, Australia so it will be very thrilling to send an international block this month.

The second block I made was for Lisa, who wanted “anything baby.” I found this pattern surfing google images. I think it is so cute! Still haven’t decided what to do about the eye…I’m considering just leaving it blank instead of sewing on a button or embroidering a black circle.

LDQB 2012: April

This month gave me trouble. I think its the first month since starting the LDQB last year that I have legitimately struggled with coming up with something fun or cute or just desirable. Terri asked for 8.5″ blocks using blue, green, and aqua.

I didn’t even take a photo of my first attempt. I tried to paper piece a star & I accidentally stretched the fabric so when it came together it wasn’t even. Yikes. Rather than try to redo it, I just did a separate block that had more of a traditional ‘squares and triangles’ feel to it. It turned out great except that it was 9″, not 8.5″!! By this time it was the end of the month (April was a really busy month for me with not much quilting time available) & I was feeling stressed because I had struck out twice.

So I ended up doing a modified diamond with log cabin surrounding it. In retrospect I wish I had nestled triangles on the corners of the block itself to give it a churn dash feel & mimic the center diamond, but that didn’t occur to me until after I had sent it. Next time!

Black and White (and red!) quilt top finished!

This is a quilt top I made as a wedding gift for one of my favorite coworkers (shhh! don’t tell the others!) She isn’t getting married until November, but I wanted to get the quilt top done asap since you never know what will come up in life. I’ve been making one or two blocks a week for months! My mom is currently in town, and I decided to take advantage of the extra pair of hands to navigate the long sashings. I made it for a queen sized bed, but these photos show it on my california king (on a queen the edges will hang down the sides more nicely). Now to find time to assemble & quilt it….

Literal Scrap Quilt

I have random little pieces of fabric up to my ears. Well, not really but that is what it feels like sometimes. Having 3 different scrap baskets, all full of tiny almost-unusable scraps is becoming a little hard to bear. So this week I decided to start sewing them all together. I’m just going to keep sewing them together until I have a sofa-sized throw that is entirely crazy quilt. My plan is to have the scraps sewn into pieces that can be trimmed to multiples of 6″ so that it is relatively easy to come together once I am scrap-free. I’m also planning on this project taking another year or so so that I actually have enough scraps to make a decent-sized finished quilt. Pieces that are too small to be sewn go into the 3rd basket, which is now a designated “stuffing” basket. I can’t wait to make some little plushies or whatnot that can be stuffed with my soft sewing discards.

Some Wonky Trees

I decided to join a wonky tree swap on flickr. The way this swap works is everyone sends their blocks to the swap administrator, who divides them all up, and mails you the same number of blocks you sent her with the idea that each block you receive was made by a different person.

So above you see my contribution. Most of the trees submitted so far had blue backgrounds or some other random color. I decided to do nightscapes & one tree growing in Brooklyn (ha!). And around here we have rats come out at night, and mice, so I decided to incorporate that into the blocks as well.

And here you can see what I have to work with. Making these blocks was fast, but it would have been even quicker if I weren’t being slowly but methodically pushed out of my work space by a little boy & his wooden train set….

Covert Robin Gift Revealed

Well, here it is:

My recipient was Tabitha of Momtastic Stitchery. I knew when I saw who I was giving to that I would need to do something with a little hand sewing on it. There are approximately 70 french knots in that M!

I took the following photo intending to post it a week or so ago, but then decided not to since it shows the front of the pouch and someone could potentially guess what it would be. Maybe I was being paranoid though because now I’m wondering how on earth someone would guess that this would be a pouch front?

The lettering is a bit of a pun on Momtastic Stitchery. Why write the word ‘stitchery’ when its written in stitches?? Another post to come on how I made the hand scrub.

Flying Geese Miniature Quilt

I took my flying geese circle block & turned it into a wall hanging for my SIL’s birthday. I used some fabric from the flying geese to border the block, and then used the backing fabric to outline the entire thing. Then I quilted it in free form straight lines on my machine. I used more flying geese fabric to bind the entire quilt. It measures 20″ square. This was really fun, and other than 2 small blocks that make up the full circle, I made the entire thing in an afternoon. So glad my SIL likes it!

A Quick Tutorial on Paper Piecing

I have been wanting to do this flying geese pattern for a while. This week I finally got my chance! Paper piecing the quilt block helps it come together quickly & efficiently. Below I have some do’s and don’ts for paper piecing Piece By Number‘s free circle of geese pattern. However, the tips should be applicable to any paper pieceing project.

The way this pattern is designed, you need to make 4 small blocks to create the one large block of a full circle.

So first you want to have all your supplies in 1 place for efficient assembly. Print off the pattern, get freezer paper ready, and have your fabric selection out.

Start by covering the pattern with the freezer paper. Carefully trace the pattern through the paper. I used a pencil because I was afraid pen would make marks on my iron that would later transfer onto my fabric. 
Make sure when you trace the pattern you label the pattern pieces! Some of these are very similar, so it could potentially cause a problem if they were switched by accident during assembly. I also marked which pieces were supposed to be background so I’d remember which color of fabric went with each pattern piece.

So cut out the individual pattern pieces, and iron them onto the designated fabric. MAKE SURE THAT YOU LEAVE ROOM FOR CUTTING SEAM ALLOWANCES. I sew with 1/4″ seam allowance, so that is the amount I left on when trimming the pattern pieces.

After cutting out the individual pieces, I like to iron them again, just to make sure the freezer paper isn’t partially lifted from the cutting process. When you iron them, just press down with the iron, eg. “press” instead of actually ironing, eg. making a “back and forth” motion with the iron over the fabric. If you actually iron rather than press, you could potentially stretch the fabric.

After pressing the pieces I like to lay them out next to the pattern in the proper assembly orientation, because this makes it easier for my brain to assess how each piece is sewed to the next.

Take piece #1 and piece #2 and sew them together. You can see in the photo below that I am sewing them together with the paper on them. The added stiffness gives you more control when sewing so it should be easier to sew these little pieces of fabric without stretching, slipping, or warping.

After you finish sewing them, just pull off the freezer paper. It is reusable, so you can use the same pattern pieces over and over and over again, just re-ironing them onto more fabric. Below you can see that I sewed through an edge of the freezer paper. This is really easy to do, & just another reminder of making sure that you give yourself adequate seam allowances. If you sew through the edge like I did, just lift the paper as much as you can, and then gently tear it away from the seam. Tearing it will be easier if you sew with a smaller stitch than used with regular sewing. Then press the sewn pieces flat.

Now here you can see what I did with my first block. I didn’t remove any freezer paper. I left it all on because I was afraid the pieces without it wouldn’t stay put & I would mess up the fine corners in this pattern. My fears were in vain & I gave myself a lot of extra work!


I was assembling this block the same way I just showed you, minus removing the paper after sewing each piece on. I actually cut the seam allowances into the freezer paper…Doing it this way, the block came together really really quickly! However, I lost all my saved time by having to sit down with a pin and pick at the paper to get it removed so the fabric would show. Boo. And the freezer paper was not salvageable for future use by any means! So don’t do this. It isn’t worth it.

If you do happen to sew over any paper, check inside the seams. Below, I lifted up part of a little strip of freezer paper that was inside the seam after I removed the paper from the top.

So just keep assembling piece by piece until you have 4 blocks sewn & you’re ready to assemble your circle!

For this block, I made 2 small blocks circling clockwise, and 2 circling counter clockwise. I just thought it would look neat if I did it that way.
It was fun playing with the different ways the little blocks could come together to form a larger design.

And here you have it, my finished flying geese circle. And no, I can’t seem to take a straight-on photo of it.

Paper piecing is really easy & projects come together quickly if you’re willing to take a little time at the beginning to prep the pattern & apply the freezer paper. Overall, I think the results make it worth it!

My Covert Robin package is sent!

Behold my Covert Robin gift:
I’m only showing the back of the zippered pouch here, because the front gives away who the recipient is. I love the inside fabric, I think it ties it all together & adds some whimsical flair.
I did minimalist quilting on the pouch itself. There are 3 lines on the front & 3 on the back.

More pics to come after this wends its way to its recipient!