eye of the storm

well, it was clean . . .

 

i have had one over-the-top busy week. there is a local special event going on and we have hosted friends and family nearly every day, including cooking dinner for large groups of people 3 different nights. it's been exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time. having over 30 people to dinner necessitated that i pack away most of my sewing supplies in an attempt to convert the room back to a dining/entertaining space for guests. well, that attempt failed. i did get it well cleaned and organized, but i ran out of time to complete the reversion to dining table. when i moved my sewing stuff in that room, it was with the idea that it was supposed to be quickly and easily converted when needed. however, we haven't entertained enough people in ages, so i never put that theory to the test until this week. and i failed miserably. the best i got done was to have the table free of everything but my sewing machine and i pulled out the dining chairs to the front of the room as a barricade/seating spot. good thing it wasn't a formal meal! by the time the last event was over last night, i had pulled out a bunch of fabrics so my sister-in-law could make selections for her new baby's quilt and the room was starting to look pretty much like it always does (see above).

 

in the middle of all this chaos, i did miraculously find some spots of time here and there to sew. i made all the mini blocks for my february sugar block:



first, i made a few extra blocks for the back - which means i messed up on a couple by making them the wrong size. as relaxing as i can find it to work on complex sewing at the end of a long day, i usually make mistakes because my brain is so tired.

when making the block, i used two of the same fabrics from january's block and some of the same prints in different colors. i like all the fabrics, but when i was done with the block, i realized i hadn't placed fabrics well. those red corners are just too loud and proud, drawing all the attention away from the star in the center. i haven't sewn them together because i'm undecided whether to make 4 new blocks with quieter centers or just live and learn with it the way it is.

on the one hand, i am using this monthly block to focus on precision a little at a time. on the other hand, i don't want to get hung up with every little detail as i'm learning. if only i knew i could use these blocks elsewhere in the top, i would happily make new ones. but the rest of the top is a mystery, so i'm wavering. also, those red corners might be just fine when mixed in with the whole top. there's just no way to know right now.

saturday was one of my in between days where i carved out some time to sew in the middle of all the prep chores. i just needed to get going on gypsy wife! but it seemed the world was conspiring against me. the 5 yr old was begging to go to the park, and when i said to her, "but mommy wants to sew," i immediately knew it was not the right response. give up one of our precious spring days at the park with my daughter to sew? hearing those words come out of my mouth brought that quickly in perspective. 5 year olds and spring days are both fleeting and precious.

however, the mr decided to go to the park with the kids, so i was dismissed. i probably should have gone anyway. but the 11 yr old didn't go and wanted to spend time with me. so i sent her to my stash to select fabrics for a baby quilt she's going to make for a fund raiser. i thought it would be a good way to use up some of the older fat quarters i'm not so crazy about anymore. however, she didn't dig to the back of the stack, she brought out this lovely bundle from the front:

some of my heather bailey "nicey jane"! ouch. i'm still not sure i can let her have these because i know this is all i have of the two floral prints. at least i can say her taste in fabric has improved drastically. perhaps what i'll have to do is buy the quilt myself, which i rather want to do since it will be her first quilt project.

we got the fabrics pressed and squared, then i had to run to Costco before it closed. on the way there i witnessed a pedestrian/vehicle accident where i actually saw the car sitting on top of the victim. the two pedestrians hit are, thankfully, alive, but in critical condition. seeing something so tragic occur before my very eyes left me quite shaken up. i mindlessly did my shopping then came home to collapse on the couch. my husband kindly took over all dinner duties and let me rest.

after dinner, he let me just sew for a while. i must say working on my colour wheel block for gypsy wife focused me in a way that really calmed me down. my faith is always the thing that gets me through stressful situations or intense time periods, but the meditative act of piecing and sewing is an additional way for me to cope. in fact, i am often able to think over what's troubling me or about how my faith applies to my situation while i'm sewing. as long as i don't let the sewing take over my time or muddle my priorities, it can be very helpful.

i got everything done to the point where the block is ready for assembly. it's pretty bold and loud, but i like it. i think the soft floral will give the crazy colors enough buffer room in the top.

two almost-assembled blocks might not seem like much sewing for one week, but it's certainly a lot more than i expected to get done considering all we had scheduled. we have an equally busy week ahead of us. i'm curious to see if i'm able to fit any more sewing in.

we've worked the kids hard this week, getting them involved in all the cleaning and cooking, but we gave them some good down time, too. the latest creative craze for my girls has been producing their own lego mini figure movies. they set up the individual scenes for each frame shot to tell a short story in about 60 seconds. of course the creation part takes a lot longer than the final product but it is keeping them engrossed and entertained. i love when they become so involved in a project that stretches their imaginations and minds.

"in hand" epp link party #5

i have a few cases and even mini bags scattered about so that i always have options for grabbing something to go when i want to work on my epp. there is my large case, that houses all basted pieces and the majority of supplies (not pictured). i have the pink plastic school supply box for when i need a sturdy, hard-shelled travel case. the contents of this case allow me to either baste or assemble as desired. in addition, i have two quart-sized ziplock bags that hold just basting supplies - one for triangles and one for squares. when i accompanied my husband on a business pleasure trip a few weeks ago, i brought the pink case and one basting bag along.

 



 

 i had hours and hours on airplanes, traversing from nearly one coast to the opposite, and open days with little required of me. it was the perfect time to relax with some epp or reading. most of the time i chose reading. however, my trusty little case of paper shapes and fabric snippets did go with me.

and once, lounging in a recliner on a beach, i happily pulled the bag out to work on my basting while the sun shone through the leaves overhead, the waves lapped in front of me, and a haitian band played tropical music just feet away.

however, there wasn't a needle in my mini bag!
i clipped together 3 triangles, just to say I'd done something, and then i was out of paperclips, too, and that was the end of my session.

so, this is the nice way to say i didn't do any epp at all in the last month. every day as i'm hurrying through my bedroom, busy about my duties, i see the case which sits in there and think, "maybe tonight i'll get to do a bit of stitching!" but then i don't.

or when i'm in my sewing room and pass by the pieces there, i think, "maybe . . . " but there are so many baby quilts to sew in the last few weeks and christmas gift quilts that still need finishing, so i don't.

that's just the way it goes with epp sometimes. i'll find time soon enough. and there is a party going on to celebrate all the work you have done. that'll inspire me.

let's look at some entries from last month's party:

sarah, from sarah quilts, brought out a hexi flower garden quilt that had a humongous epp hexi flower on the backing. this definitely has to be the largest-sized hexi project i've seen to date. the flowers on the front were done by machine piecing, but she now wishes she'd done them by epp. there's always the next one, sarah.

biscuit introduced us to her many and varied epp interests, which she is trying to narrow down and focus on. at 20 now, she has been quilting for 7 years already, making her probably the youngest quilter i've met to date. i'm quite interested to see how she progresses.

paul, the first fellow to join our group, shared his very first epp project, which he describes as "a hexi landscape quilt." i think he's invented a new form of epp!

somehow familiar

 after perusing the pattern book for "gypsy wife", i decided i needed more fabrics. a lot more fabrics. part of what makes the gypsy so charming is the complete scrappiness of it. i'm still studying all the photos in the booklet (not enough, i think!) in order to figure out what, exactly, about this quilt appeals to me so that i can reproduce the spirit of it in my own interpretation. one thing i picked up on right away was the plethora of patterns in ms. kingwell's quilt. so i pulled several more fabrics from my stash that have what i consider a gypsy feel to them. for the most part, i like the way this pile looks together from a distance & in the photo, so that tells me i'm likely on the right path.

as i was cuddling up under my own "out on a limb" quilt with the baby last week, admiring all it's patterns and colors again, it occurred to me that my quilt is somewhat similar to "gypsy wife." obviously, my design is much simpler, but the multitude of strips interrupted by that one stripe do have something in common with the gypsy. i think this may be one reason i'm drawn to the gypsy, aside from it's own pure awesomeness. granted, my quilt is a much simpler, little sister version of the very grown up gypsy wife, but i see some resemblance, nonetheless.

while admiring my own quilt, i thought how nice it is to love a quilt and it's fabrics even more as time goes on rather than to get tired of it. the baby and i were lying under the quilt with it up over our heads, looking at the way the light came through, bathing us in a red glow from the backing and making all the other colors shine, too. it was magical. that's when i thought to myself that i must have done something right to love this quilt even more after so much time. this isn't meant as a brag on my quilt. the feeling of satisfaction with my own work, even after distance from it's creation, is quite pleasant. somehow, without even knowing it, i got the balance of brights and pastels right in this quilt. working with a jelly roll from one amazing line of fabrics helped, but i did cull that jelly roll a bit. maybe i'll be able to pull it off again with the picks from my stash. i hope to have the same attachment to and love for "gypsy wife" whenever she's done. even if she takes over two years like "out on a limb" did!

spring mosaic #2

april showers bring may flowers

second mosaic for color intensive "spring" challenge

spring mosaic #1

 buds, blue skies, and new greens

two color mosaics of "spring" for my color intensive class

on the bookshelf

 i haven't posted our bookshelf selections in a few weeks, so here they are. just kidding! these are actually the books that are on my nightstand, the books i pour over many a night before sleeping. i thought readers would perhaps be even more interested in these. right now i keep revisiting sunday morning quilts while perusing my latest acquisitions.

my son asked the other day if i was a "book hoarder"? um, yes, i suppose by some definitions i am. although i prefer "avid reader with varied interests who likes to own rather than borrow books." or something along those lines.

while photographing my little joke, i had a new idea: perhaps i should review a quilting or sewing book each week as i post the weekly children's book selections. i think i shall.

as for what's really on the bookshelf this week, here you go:

stars by mary lyn ray (bedtime)
monkey business by wallace edwards (fantastic illustrations of idioms)
the wish factory by chris riddell (bedtime/dealing with nightmares)
jack and the baked beanstalk by colin stimpson (reimagined fairy tale)
cinderella: the untold tale by russell shorto (reimagined fairy tale/two sided story)
white snow bright snow by alvin tresselt (winter / caldecott medal)
the princess and the pig by jonathon emmett (reimagined fairty tale / switched at birth / love the ending to this one!)
ape in a cape by fritz eichenberg (abc / caldecott medal)
crafty chloe by kelly dipucchio, illustrated by heather ross {yes, that heather ross!} (personal creativity)
ish by peter h. reynolds (confidence in personal creativity)
me counting time by annette cable (concept book)

better in the morning

 i decided to take some better photos of the ultra-bright apron in real daylight. natural lighting almost always improves appearances in photos. i still don't love the apron, but it did look rather cute on d3 today when she happened to be wearing a coordinating outfit.

whipped up an apron

this afternoon, i played project leap frog - jumping from one project to the next - as i cleaned up my sewing space. everyone was supposed to clean a part of the downstairs and i picked my sewing room. that's kind of cheating, now isn't it? well, it did need to be done. so i cleaned and straightened and worked on bits and pieces of wips as i went along. and i actually completed an entire non-quilting project!

i turned 2 fat quarters and 2 yards of grosgrain ribbon into an over-due, eye-blinding apron for my 7 yr old, d3, working off a sample apron given to d4 last year. for reference, normally, she wears a size 8 or 10 girls. there was enough fabric here to make an apron for a large child, teen, or even small-ish adult. i had about half of the accent fat quarter left over after using it for the bodice and skirt trim. also, i would recommend 2.5 yards of ribbon so you could make a cute bow for the waistband like the sample apron has.

it was so completely simple that i was able to guess my way through it by looking at the sample apron. as i got started, i decided to photograph some of the process for anyone interested. however, it was late afternoon (no natural light left) and i was working with 2 different types of light in the room, with no desire to keep switching my white balance back and forth. so, i apologize in advance for the crazy photos of some ultra-bright fabrics selected by a 7 year old. (i had to put that last part in there just so no one thinks i chose the fabrics. my vanity wouldn't permit it. i will, however, claim selecting the ribbon.)

this is not a precise pattern, more of a walk-through of how i assembled the apron. you can measure the child or teen for whom you are making the apron to come up with your own measurements.

 first, i trimmed up the prewashed fat quarters to give them clean edges. then i cut a 3" strip of fabric off my accent fabric to trim the bottom of the apron skirt. to hem it, i rolled one edge about 1/4", twice, pressed it, and stitched down. then i attached the trim to the skirt with a 1/2" seam allowance. if you have a serger or overlock function, this seam allowance would be a good place to use it.

 press your seam open on the front side. the bottom of your skirt is trimmed.

finish both side edges of the skirt by turning under 1/8", twice, pressing, and stitching down. in retrospect, i would have finished the sides before hemming the skirt, but it's not that big a deal.

next, gather your skirt.

 using a large, loose basting stitch, sew across the top (opposite the trimmed edge) of the skirt, then pull the strings to gather to the desired length. i made my skirt about 10" wide, but would go wider next time.

after gathering the skirt, i attached the ribbon waistband to it.

view from back after skirt is attached to waistband

i cut about 2' off the ribbon for neck ties, leaving 4' for the waistband. i folded the ribbon in half and marked the center, doing the same with the apron. then i lined up the two center marks and attached the ribbon to the skirt, wrong side of the ribbon to the right side of the skirt, with about 3/4" seam allowance to the skirt but the seam about 1/16th" from the ribbon's edge on the front. (see photos below to view how this looks on the front.) you can now remove the basting strings, if desired.

make the apron bodice by turning and securing the edges, like above, of 3 sides of an approximately 10" x 10" square. (hello, leftover layer cake square!) then attach bodice to the skirt.

WARNING -  this is the WRONG way to place your pieces!!!

resulting in a backwards bodice. oops.

do not do like my first attempt and place the right side of the bodice to the wrong side of the skirt. oh, no. please do it like this:

correct placement of bodice to skirt

place the skirt on your work surface with the right side of skirt facing up, ribbon waistband turned down away from the skirt's top edge, and align the right side of the bodice's unfinished bottom edge to the right side of the skirt's top edge. pin together and sew with a 1/2" seam allowance, or whatever you can manage without sewing into the ribbon. since you can't see the ribbon, you can feel for it as you sew. this seam will be hidden behind the ribbon, so some wobble won't show.

these two photos illustrate where are all the pieces are while making this seam:

wrong side of bodice on top

ribbon folded back away from skirt's top edge so that right side of skirt is touching right side of bodice

when you are done sewing the bodice to the skirt, it will look like this:

press the seam open, being careful not to scorch or melt your ribbon wit the cotton setting on your iron.

 all the threads you see in my seam allowance between the bodice and the ribbon are my basting strings and the threads from my two previous attempts at attaching the skirt correctly, which i was too lazy to remove.

at this point, i meant to make another seam further securing the skirt's edge to the bodice, but i forgot to. it probably won't matter, but would have been nice.

 lay the ribbon waistband flat on the bodice and attach with the needle just inside the edge of the ribbon. if you use a matching thread, it will be hidden. i don't think i own a thread this color and didn't care to purchase any, so i have a high-contrast white stitch on my ribbon and hems. with a different ribbon and maybe a decorative stitch, this could be really cute.

use the remaining 2' of ribbon for the neck ties. i folded one straight edge of the ribbon up before attaching to the top corners of the bodice. cut the loose ends of the ribbon on the diagonal and finish with fray check. do the same for the waistband tie ends.

an alternate finish for the neck ties is to sew a long strip of Velcro to the ties, allowing it to attach easily for a child.

now your apron is complete!
you are ready to surprise your 7 year old daughter with the apron you promised to make for her months and months ago only to hear her respond, "mom! i said i wanted to make it myself, not you to make it for me!" don't worry, she will begrudgingly wear it anyway.

january's intention

 finished just in time for the next block to arrive in my inbox tomorrow morning, i have completed "intentions," my first block for the sugar block club 2014 bom series from amy at stitchery dickory dock.

being part of a bom series and making this block was a new experience for me in many ways. i've never done a traditional block before, mainly because they have been too complicated for my skill set. both the hourglass mini block and the 3-triangle mini blocks (official name?) were new to me. i surprised myself by working well with so many triangles.



because there is a low time commitment with only one block each month and because there are so many pieces/chances to throw off the size to each block, i focused on precision more than i normally do with this block. there were a few redo's for me, but not too many. in general i shocked myself with some pretty precise piecing. not perfect, mind you, but definitely personal progress.

i've never purposefully made blocks over-sized and then trimmed down, but i gave it a go this time and was converted. i did find one block that i either had to trim slightly off center or remake, and i let that go (notice the way the pink and blue point is slightly off in the upper left of the photo). however, when trimming up the mini blocks to assemble the larger one, i accidentally trimmed one 1/4" too small. arg. but i just whipped up another one.

also, when my hourglass block was a tad too small, even after repeat pressing, i just made another one (which is still slightly imperfect if you look at the bottom points). so i have a few spare parts now, but this doesn't bother me a bit. they'll just get worked into my backing when the time comes.

spare parts for the backing

with this series, each block is a surprise each month. i was a tiny uncomfortable with this at first because i wanted to know where the series was going when i made fabric selections. i wanted a color palette to start with but didn't know how many different fabrics might be required. however, i got over that and gave into the fun of working with continual surprises. despite wanting to break into my liberty fabrics, i knew they were too precious for a skill-building experience. instead, i picked over my stash to find some prints that have a sort of farmhouse and playful vintage feel to them. but i'm obviously also working in some modern prints with that comma circles print. i'm just going to take it month by month with the decision making.

all in all, this was a fun little project; a great exercise in skill building and comfort-zone busting. i look forward to the February block tomorrow.

my machines

i now own four sewing machines. that's not quite as bad as it sounds.

the first machine is one my mom scrimped and saved to buy for me in high school. she gave it to me my junior year for christmas. she wanted to pass on her sewing skills, but that never happened. it's a basic model singer. i used it at the time to attempt a pillow or something like that and never even finished it. somehow it followed me to college and came in handy once for a puppeteering class i took as part of my degree in early childhood education. later on, heidi swapp taught me how to sew on my scrapbook pages with it. i made my first quilt on this machine, pieced and quilted, as well as a project or two. i did not want to give it up or have to upgrade. but she pulled to the right and i was always fighting her for accuracy. so now she's my paper sewing machine. i next upgraded to . . .

a brother project runway. i saved my own money this time and got little (pink) brother. my local quilt shop sold this machine and it came highly recommended by a quilter there. at $400, it was a moderate investment but way below the high-end machines. my accuracy definitely improved. i purchased in a few extra feet and an extension table to help with my quilting. i made another 5 or 6 quilt tops with little brother and quilted "out on a limb" with it. but i wanted to free motion and i could tell little brother wasn't hacking it anymore. the throat space, especially, was an issue. i'll be keeping little brother for anything my new machine can't do, like zigzag stitch and a few other bells and whistles. because i did once more upgrade for my 40th birthday to this . . .

juki tl2010q
this is my main lady now. we are piecing and quilting together, learning all about how to fmq (free motion quilt). you can read my impressions of her here and here. i also did a review of her for the sew mama sew machine link party here.

little brother (unplugged) now does a great job entertaining the baby while i sew. and will be saved for other projects not suitable for juki.
that should do me for machines.

what about the 4th one you, say?

i also inherited my grandma margaret's singer, still in it's beautiful wooden carrying case. she sits on a shelf in my bedroom, purely decorative and sentimental. it's a priceless heirloom, that turned out to be even more priceless than i first realized. read about it here.