A quilt finish!

Wheh! It's been a while.



**JUST TO CLARIFY, this isn't my own pattern or idea. I saw something like it on Pinterest maybe ... anyway, just not claiming it.

A quilt for my brother's birthday! He's 25.



I was just terrified of sandwiching and quilting this beast, but it wasn't a big deal. I think this helped:



It's my first bed-sized quilt. I didn't get a final measurement, but it covered the top of our full-size mattress with a little drape.

Anyway ... the brother loved it! I gave it to him on his visit out here at Thanksgiving, and he used it when he crashed on our couch. Twice. We do holidays right in our family.

The specs:

Fabric is a mix of Kona solids (Orange, Jade, Earth and Daffodil) and Essex Linen (PFD and Sand).

The batting is Warm and Natural.

I used straight-line quilting, with rows an inch apart. I marked the lines with a Clover water-soluble marker, and about had a heart attack when the whole soluble thing wasn't solublizing. But it came out after a go in the washer sans soap and a tumble in the dryer sans heat.


We had fun photographing this one.





And most importantly, the brother loved it.

:: ::

On other fronts, I built a lightbox.



Specifically to take photos of the dinos.



This one was mostly a just-to-see-how-it-works effort; now I want one big enough to accommodate sewing projects.

I made some super wonky stars.



Onesies.





Tag blankie. It's from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby. I made it to test sewing with minky, except I cheated and sandwiched some batting in there too (for sturdiness). Finding fabric ribbon was hard! My JoAnn didn't have any. I went to Target, but all their gift-wrapping ribbon wasn't fabric. But the ribbon adorning their gift bags was, so I bought a few and appropriated the ribbon. Not too bad of a situation, because gift bags (the rad plain brown paper ones) always come in handy.



Soft baby blankie. The front is a great flannel. The back is super-soft minky. I've never really sewed with either before and was nervous. The flannel was fun. The minky made me swear a lot. It's slippery, even with a walking foot. But it makes an awesome baby blanket. I sort of wish I'd used a piece of quilt batting in the middle to give this thing some weight, but I don't the the layers would have stuck together.



I made a pretty bad-ass pie.



Ran well with others.



And learned some new skills!





All in about a week and a half.

Winning.

Baby quilt done!

I finished this last week, but am just getting around to the photos now.


We love us some gas in Billings. Seriously. There are three refineries.


Back.


Here are the details:

It's 45 inches square
The grey is Quilter's Linen in grey, but the wrong side.
The binding and back strip (dots) are from Momo's It's a Hoot, as are some of the prints in the log-cabin blocks. The binding is by hand and took about 90 minutes.
The elephants are Japanese and the sashing is Essex Linen.
The rest of the fabric came from random fat quarters, but I know the wood grain is Joel Dewberry and the blue herringbone is also Joel Dewberry, one of my favorites.
The blocks are wonky log-cabin style, and finish at 10 inches.
The sashing is Essex Linen in PFD (prepared for dye) 3 inches finished. I used PFD a) because it's what I could find in stock and b) it wasn't as harsh as white or as cream-colored as ivory.
The batting is bamboo.
The quilting is an easy free-motion pattern, and I think technically stippling, since nothing overlaps (except one tiny mistake that only I'll ever notice).


Here's more of the piecing.

And here's a closer shot.






I really loved using the Essex Linen with this quilt and think it'll become a regular for sashing in the future. As long as I can find it in stock.

We snagged those photos right before heading to the horses races.





He almost broke even. Basically.






And, continuing the theme of running animals, we hit up the Reed Point Sheep Drive on Sunday.









It was a very American event.


There was Miller Light, after all. And these pants, which I'll post about next.








So that was a massive amount of photos. Speaking of massive...





This desk. It's in my, ahem, new sewing room!

All I have are cellphone photos right now. But you get the idea.






The desk was Tim's parent's. They bought it in New York a long, long time ago. It's called a partners desk. It's meant to have two people on each side, hence the double drawers. And ridiculous size.


It's solid oak. I can lie diagonally on it, reach my arms over my head as far as I can and still not touch both ends. I love it.


And, to wrap things up , adorable dogs. And a Tim.

ZIPPER! (and the pillow it's attached to)

Ahem!



That's my zipper!



And there it is again, in hiding.



And that's what it's zipping up.

My first pillow!

Made with one of the log cabin blocks I didn't use in the quilt. And used here to test out quilting ideas for the larger end product.



I like the straight lines.

I debated for about an hour over whether to sew my binding to the front or back. I was nervous about hand-binding into the corduroy I used for the backing, but it went well. So well I forgot how afraid I was of it at the start and didn't take any special photos to document the result.

And here's where we're at with the baby quilt.



I cut my yard of Essex Linen in the wrong direction, so I didn't get enough out of it to finish the sashing. Good thing it's cheap and I found some more online.

I think what I ordered will come tomorrow, so I should be ready to quilt by the weekend.

Funks

I'm in this funky little rhythm where things are happening too fast and too slow all at once.

I want fall to show up already, but I feel awful wishing the last bits of summer away. I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, but I want everything I do -- dog walks, for example -- to last longer.

I'm enjoying the poke-along pace of the improv log cabin blocks in the baby quilt I'm working on, but in my head (and on random scraps of paper throughout the house) I'm building a list of projects I want to start.

I get through 1.5 baby quilt blocks a night. I get one together, stick it up on the wall, start on the next one.

Halfway through the next one, after sewing machine-cutting table round trips that take me by the design wall 16 times, I decide I don't like the block I just finished.

So I push it off to the side, my designated blocks-for-the-quilt-back-or-a-pillow-or-something area. Then I decide I'm too tired to sew anything I like and head to bed.

By morning, I have fonder feelings toward all the blocks.

Figures.

Today I wanted to do something else, start to finish. And I did.





It's a case for my sunglasses.



I used scraps from the baby quilt and some Essex Linen I had on-hand.

I sure do like that stuff. The heavier weight is wonderful (like Japanese fabric). You get the look of linen without all the fuss. And you get solids with some nice texture.

For this project, I used my sunglasses to make a freezer paper template and then built a basic lined pouch. I was going to sew Velcro to the top for the closure, but I couldn't find any. Oh well. I think I'll add a button and loop tonight. That way my closure will be quiet. Shhh.

I needed a project like this: one hour, no second-guessing. I like being comfortable enough with my sewing skills that I can build something small without the silly screw-ups that make it an all-afternoon affair.

I had a few Goodwill finds today, but I think T might steal one of them for his wardrobe. In all fairness, I offered it up. I'll post photos... as soon as I take them.

Time to roll over into the weekend.

Abundance

One of my co-workers is having a baby, so I get to make a baby quilt!

I've been doing some fabric selection by committee, asking everyone in sight (and a few far away) what they like.

This is the first time I've had a stash large enough to pull from for a project. A real abundance. And I think I'll be able to piece the blocks almost entirely from what I have on-hand.

I started with this:



And then this:



And now I'm down to this:


(The Xs are going away)

I think I'll add a yellow solid too.

The plan is a wonky log-cabin style block with largish strips. The elephants and birds will be the block centers.

To keep it neat-looking, I want to use a neutral sashing between blocks. I'm thinking Essex linen, which I've never used before. But the heavier weight might be nice for a baby quilt that will be washed lots.

Thoughts? Is it gender-neutral enough? Too boyish? I think the extra yellow will help.

On other fronts, I'm just about halfway done with the hand-binding on the Seattle quilt. I want to mail it by Friday.


(Ignore that stray dog hair. That's why you wash quilts before sending them)

And Tom and Chowder are, as usual, living the life.