Over the Moon

A random project sometimes captures my heart.
And lots of dark scraps sometimes remind me of the night sky.
For this pillow cover, I used the quilt as you go method for the background/sky pieces. and did random quilted navy blue lines all over. For the moon phases, I used some leftover AGF Winged by Bonnie Christine. It reminded me of the way the moon glows, and when you stare at it long enough you can see the craters and shadows and textures. I used raw edge applique, sometimes called a sketch stitch, with white thread (except for the new moon at the top, that was navy thread too).

This pillow cover is 16"x16". Someday when I open my etsy shop, it's going to be listed in there. Soon! I hope...
I adore this though so I might end up keeping it for myself ;)

Linking up to...

Sanibel Summer Quilt

A few weeks ago, my brother and sister-in-law had a perfect little baby girl! Olivia Marie is my first niece, and it's my first time being an aunt! Yay! I haven't blogged (or sewn anything really) in ages because college blah blah blah. But it's over and it's summer and there is time to sew!
So anyways, sewing for Olivia. I won this jelly roll of Sanibel by Moda from the lovely blog Stitching and Bacon. I love the colors, stitching this together was creating a rainbow during the rainy weather we've been having. The little Adirondack chairs just made me dream of days in my backyard with a good book and many happy days to come for my little niece.

Now the quilting. So I started by doing some free motion loops, but soon discovered something was off with either the tension or my own timing. Spent a few days ripping out half a quilts worth of loops, that was fun. After that I was ready to do some straight-ish lines. I didn't mark them, just stitched along. I backed it with a blue dot voile kind of fabric that I bought at JoAnn's awhile back.

So bright, so pretty. And of course there were some scraps that I had to make into a pillow. :)

Linking up tooooo

On the wings of a butterfly

What. A. Hectic. Week. I went from being cozy at home to extensive dog-sitting this week and these animals are giving me a run for my money! But the nice people told me I could set up shop on the dining room table, and I'm loving all the space (even if I clutter it up pretty fast). It's also niiice and quiet around here. I decided to use all the time I had to chip away at this lovely FQ bundle I bought... The way too pretty collection called Winged by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery Fabrics. I love Art Gallery, we are having a love affair. I don't care what anyone thinks!!

I am using this tutorial by Hyacinth Quilt Designs to make Garden Fence Blocks. For some reason it's taking me forever, I think it's all of the little white pieces that get me frustrated. So after the first few (more like ten) practice blocks, I did mostly cutting today so I can start and stop whenever I have time. 

This stack grew quite a bit since I took this picture. These colors are so stunning in real life, I don't know if the pictures do it justice. And only 14 more stacks to make! I'm doing 56 blocks all together. 

I started out fussy cutting the butterflies for the center, but soon lost interest in that and would run out of pretty butterflies. They make my heart sing and flutter. And yes, another butterfly quilt. 

xoxoxoxoxo linking up to needle and thread thursday <3

Every last bit

If you have ever been unfortunate enough to be in a sewing situation with me, you would know that I hate throwing out scraps. I usually keep everything, even the impossibly small pieces of precious fabric. So when I was trimming the flying geese from this quilt here, I couldn't throw them out. That quilt has some of my favorite fabrics ever and I was not about to put those in the trash. So after sitting in a container for a few months, I made a few half square triangles... I think it was about 230? Something like that.

Then I put them together into 9 patch blocks and squared them up into 9.5" blocks unfinished. The HSTs actually came from two different projects that just so happened to be the same size, lucky duck.

I decided that the quilt would be too small if I didn't add sashing and I ran out of HSTs. I hate cutting into my small (but hopefully growing) Amy Butler stash. Those are my two favorite prints, I use them a lot.

Maybe I will add another section of sashing to the top and bottom, right now it's around a 50" square. I love how colorful and scrappy it is though, delicious. Linking up to scraptastic tuesday and fabric tuesday :) xoxoxoxoxo

.::Fare Thee Well 2014::.

Ah, the sappy new year's posts are saturating the blogosphere with the mosaics of quilty finishes, but I'll just share a few thoughts here. I've been too lazy lately and I made way too many little things this year that I never photographed. I lost my laptop for the last month, so there is no proof of my marathon sewing for the HO HO holidays. But believe me, it happened. My Juki and I powered through it, as always.

But it's over now, thank the heavens, and I can go back to my steady and sometimes frantic sewing for myself. I would like to start selling my creations in the new year. It's hard to know where to start sometimes... Etsy? Blogging? Craft shows? All of the above? It can be stressful to think about when you just have the end of the dream in your mind. But how do you get there? 

I've learned so much about my sewing style in the past year. I bought my Juki in 2013, but this year I've been using it to its potential with playing with free motion quilting and I feel like I've made some great leaps. Just doing a whole quilt without issue makes me so happy! 

Even if I didn't explore it too much, I made a few garments! Well, a costume for the Renaissance Faire, but still. I made the cape and vest (grommets ugh) and now a whole new world of possibilities for my nerdities has opened up! Can't really see it but I didn't take a lot of pictures. Next season's costume is going to be crazy. 

So that's all really have to say so goodbye, happy new year! :) 

A finished Arizona pencil pouch

A few months ago, I entered a contest and actually won! Woo! I am in the process of making a Japanese x and plus quilt with a gorgeous fat quarter bundle of Arizona by April Rhodes for Art Gallery Fabrics. Can I just say... AGF=heaven. But anyways, I have things cut up for that quilt, and decided to use some of the scraps for a pencil case. You never know when you're going to need your colored pencils in college. ;)

I made a simple quilt-as-you-go panel, squared it up, attached the zipper, and stitched up the sides. These are always quick and gratifying projects! And it only took about a half hour.

My lovely friend Khrystine and I (if you're reading this, hey girl!) had a sewing night at my house with tea, giggles, and of course stitchin' and bitchin'. I made this, and she made a beautiful pouch too with her scraps. Sometimes I have so many ideas in my head, it's a relief to have someone to tell them to.

This fabric line is so bold and pretty, I cannot wait to finish the quilt. Now if I could only buy the right amount of fabric when I go to the shop...

                                      xoxoxooxoxoxo

The Alchemist: A Finished Quilt

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, alchemy is a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination. I love this fabric line from Amy Butler. The dandelions are a Moda fabric. I wanted to keep this quilt basic and the pieces of fabric big, so I used this tutorial here from Stitched in Color. 

I didn't really plan where the different "bricks" would go, I just made sure that there weren't huge clusters of the same print in a section. I quilted straight lines in the white spaces.

I took this one for a bit of a photo shoot around the quarries by my house, which provided this lovely slate wall for me. ;) Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of good pictures because I got nervous and hopped on my bike when I heard other people. Stupid, but true.

Teddy likes to nap on this one, so I'm going to leave folded on my chair for awhile. He's so cute. <3