Tuestash or Not to Stash

There was a shop hop in my neck of the woods. There was no way I was going make it to all of the shops but I figured the ones that were near me would have sales and free things. I was right, score! These fabrics were on sale for $3.99 a yard! (I'm doing an awkward "running man" dance in my head.) They were either basic enough to use with everything or odd enough to be adopted by my cupboard.

The second set I have just wanted forever and they weren't even on sale, I think, but I did get one whole dollar off. Deal. I just got about a quarter yard of each. Now I just need to track down that deer print from the same Timber and Leaf Line and I'll be set.

The answer is, of course, yes to stash.

Tote Practice

I cut up some fabric to test sew a tote. I've never sewn one before (unless you count the girls camp one summer when we had to sew our own dish holder tote/bag and puff paint our names on).

I specifically bought this fabric for testing bags a while ago and also happen to have some thrifted thick brown cotton for the bottom part. Not sure if I'll like the color combo at all. And no, I don't know exactly why I'd sew up a whole project in colors I probably won't like. Maybe it's because I'm trying to use my stash this year rather than purchase.  In any case, at least I'll have one tote under my belt, no puff paint this time.

I Spanked the French Knots

I'm working on some embroidery. I learned how to do the basics in a summer school class my grade school offered. Haven't done much since then. I picked it up again a few years ago to work on a pillow cushion. And I'm still working on the same one :) Here's the thing, it's a graphic design that is repetitive and done in only satin stitch. So it takes a long time. Well it mostly takes a long time since I can only so one small section without getting bored. Or my hands getting tired from my death grip on the hoop.
I've moved on to work on other things and I bring That One out occasionally. This one is fairly small, it'll end up probably about 4"x5" or so. I sketched out lots of designs until I got to this. Yes, this also has satin stitches, but! they don't have to be uniform which makes all the difference.

While I was brushing up on embroidery I looked at a lot of pics and sites online. I was surprised at how many people are scared of French Knots. I thought, hmm, maybe I should be scared of them, it's been a while since I've done them. So I looked at a few tutorials, each assuring us to "not be scared" they're "not that horrible", "only loose a couple fingers", "or an eye". Kidding. But it just all made me more nervous. Until I told myself to just calm down. If I could do these at about 9 or 10 years old they really can't be that hard. They totally aren't, they're just as easy as all the other stitches.

I French Knotted to my hearts content. And then decided I didn't quite like the colors I'd used so I got out my small embroidery Ginghers (they are small, my fingers are not gigantic I promise). It made me sad to see the knot carnage. It'll look better in the end.

Design Inspiration Pics

On a recent trip to California I kept seeing little bits of design inspiration scattered about. Of course, I usually see quilt designs all over the place :)

Building in LA

 Wouldn't these be fun designs for quilts? Hard but fun. 

Yes, it's a grate of some sort, we won't say what kind, 

but fun hexagons and arrow connections in between. 

This is from an air grate on my sister's balcony. Nice lattice design for a quilt, reminds me a bit of the tilework in the Middle East. If you stare at it long enough, or shift your eyes back and forth,  you'll see secondary spots in the large white spaces :)

Okay, so those are not strictly just sewing inspiration. These are a bit larger than cupcake size and so adorable! From the deli in Palm Springs. 

Pattern Testing!

I like to volunteer to test people's patterns. I volunteer as many times as people ask for helpers. I figure if it's something I'm good at I can do a great job for them and if I am a beginner at something I'll learn a new skill and they'll get good feedback about how to help others like me succeed.

Of course that was all in theory since no one ever took me up I my offer until now :) Yay! I got to pattern test. The wonderful Ms. Juliet at Tartankiwi let me have a go at one of her patterns.

When I printed it out I almost peed my pants, at least emotionally. Surely those tiny pieces are a printing error?!? They were not. So, I chose colors that'll go with either my Forest Quilt A Long or 3x6 Bee Blocks and got to it. And guess what, those itty bitty pieces were easy to do! The pattern is straight forward and easily read and understood. I think it turned out so well. Since she hasn't released the pattern yet, I can only show you a bit of how it's looking. You should hop over to her blog and check out her Kiwi Bird paper pieced block-I fell in love with it.

Here's a few pics of what I worked on.

Keeping it real-the back which hardly gets shown :)

That white corner in between the minty dots and mushrooms is super tiny

The top of the piece that I can show you, in progress. 

I was so scared of foundation paper piecing before I had done any. Now I really love it. You can get such precise corners, lines and designs done so easily. If you haven't tried it yet, I totally recommend it.

Month Sucker

I got a cold in April. It's now May. Besides doing my taxes, being a mediocre friend and keeping my house clean, the whole of April was pretty much a wash. Only one hive of my bee-mates got their blocks on time, I forgot to post about the Lovely Year of Finishes finish and to set a goal for May. So here are my unofficial goals for May: sew more-I love doing it, bike at least 5 times-I love doing this as well, porch sit, blog more-even if its just from my phone and I can't control where the pictures are oriented (obsessed much?) and definitely not least-appreciate friends by being an awesome friend to them.

That shouldn't be too hard right?

So in keeping with the new goal of blogging by phone when necessary, here are my second set of 3x6 Mini Quilt Bee blocks for the solids hive (and see what fun designs popped up when I folded them to mail them?!) :

Half-Way There Lovely Finish

My April Lovely Finishes goal is to get my 3x6 Mini Quilt Sampler Bee Blocks done. I've gotten the paper pieced blocks done. This is a design that I came up with myself after doodling and drawing, measuring and dividing shapes. I love how paper piecing come together with little shapes.

I am so in love with how these ones turned out! Look at how the seams match up! And even the cream colored Tula Pink Salt Water print matches up as well. I may or may not have leaned down to it when the seam was done and whispered, "I love you." 

Now the recipient wanted calm colors in indigo, jade, ash, aqua and cream and she said she liked Tula Pink. I got a bee in my bonnet, ha!, made the block entirely out of Tula fabrics.  A little overboard but I like it :)  Here's the block before trimming then after trimming.

Rainbow with black background

Hot colors like red, orange, yellow and pink

Greens and Blues

Rainbow colors and white background

Cobalt with black and white

So that means I'm half way there. That's exciting and sad since the other half were due already and I haven't gotten them done yet. I got a cold that's not going away any time soon and that makes everything move at the pace of cold molasses. Plugging along though :) You can go over to the Lovely Finishes link up to check out what everyone else is working on here.

here

Super Covert Robin

I am a good person who puts things in safe places. Like hiding my Covert Robin's address and email from myself for more than a week after I received my gift. But I finally found it in its safe place! So I get to email my person Gigi. (Hi! Waving my hand). I got a fabulous city tote. This is my very first made for me bag ever! It was like getting a birthday/Christmas present! It came wrapped in a bow and everything. I super love it. The green lining is so great with the outside and is light so it's easy to find things.

I got it the night before I left on a week long trip to California. Now this bag was born in the East Coast and traveled all the way with me to the beach on the West Coast. How cool is that! It was a great beach bag. The handles are the perfect size for my hands. I'm pretty sure every one that saw me was jealous of my awesome bag. Here it is enjoying the sun!

Thank you so much Gigi! We could try quilting together this year :) And thanks Imagine Gnats and everyone over at Covert Robin and the link for all of the gift givers/recipients here Mon Petit Lyons. 

April Lovely Finish Goal

Third time's the charm. This is the 3rd and last time I'm writing this post I tell ya. The last two disappeared. Poof. So here we go, Goal: get 3x6 Bee Blocks done. All 527 or 12 of them. Here's an extremely technical drawing of one block I'm planning on doing for the solids group and some fabric choices for the paper pieced block.

Lovely Finish for March

I've actually had this done since the first week if March, or was it the beginning of the second? For a while now :) My goal was to re quilt and bind it. The binding fabric is a light grey with lighter grey circles from Riley Blake Super Star. I wanted something that would not stand out more than the quilt since the quilt has so much piecing. And it needed to go with the back.

The back's a little crazy but I'm trying to use up, make do or do without. It doesn't match the front but it is its own friend :) I found pinks in the stash that were all a bit coral-y or warm that would go together. I added in the yellow for a break from all the pinkness. It does go with the yellow in the bottom print. I think it's Alexander Henry? and the strips on the sides are A. Henry Farmdale Crosshatch, there's some Amy Butler Soul Blossom and some Del-hi (the yellow polka dot one).

The quilting is organic straight line both vertical and horizontal. I really like the look and was happy that it would reinforce all those small pieced seams. Some of the fabric pieces were less than two inches square. I was so happy with the straight lines, that I echo quilted the stitching that sewed the binding down.

I had originally done the quilting in grey but it stood out too much. It almost looked like it was sitting on top. I pulled out my Aurifil pack (the one I won in the Merrily We Sew Along) and got the white, grey and pink out. To my surprise the pink looked the best. It blended in with the grey and blue very well, or maybe I should say it complemented them and didn't distract.

It was a brain buster during the Scrappy Stash QAL. Once I had the blocks sewn I had all these different sizes that I had to fit together.

I laid out those blocks a couple times on the floor and just couldn't get them to work so I made more block, combined some and decided I definitely needed the grey blocks I had planned to use.

After all the blocks were done I laid them out and rearranged them for hours. I took pictures of the layouts I liked the most and had my two sisters also give their two cents about what should go where. Once I decided how the blocks should go I had to figure out a way to put them together. I didn't want to deal with partial seams as I was trying to get the quilt done in time for the quilt-a-long. I finally got them into sections and added more logs to the scrappy cabins where necessary to make them fit. Here's the plan that worked. This, ahem, beautiful photo is a phone picture that I played with to organize in photoshop then took a screen picture of. But hey, it was about 2:30 in the morning and I needed the plan to be set :)

 I'm so pleased how it all turned out and I really do think its a lovely finish.