Blogger's Quilt Festival! Zigzags in Voile

When I was on vacation in Vermont this summer, I bought some fat quarters of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile from Nido. I would take it out and pet it from time to time, but I was a little afraid to do anything with it. I don't know, I guess because it's so silky I thought it would be hard to work with. So I decided the only sensible way to conquer my fear was to keep buying voile whenever I could find it on sale. (This makes sense in my head. Really.) Finally I decided to suck it up and start sewing.



So I started cutting up and sewing together rectangles to make a zigzag quilt. AMH's fabric seems a natural fit with zigzags. I used the tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts (no piecing triangles!), and it was really simple.


The voile didn't give me any trouble either. It can be difficult to tell "right" from "wrong" side, but I guess if I can't tell, it doesn't really matter! (I think Ashley mentioned this in a post about voile, and she knows her stuff.) I used a smaller needle and increased my stitch length a little bit, and it really wasn't much different than quilting cotton. It really presses beautifully too.


(The cream fabric is AMH voile in Froth.)


And here's a picture of my quilt artfully draped over a bench.


The binding is voile in RiverRock. (Do you think the voile will hold up as binding? I guess time will tell.) For the backing I used the Forest Hills in Sea print. I got it for a good price from an Etsy shop that was closing. The voile fabric is pricey, but don't forget it's 54-inches wide so you get more of it. (I'm really good at rationalizing.) The fat quarters are, like, huge.


I didn't want the quilting to interfere with the softness of the fabric, so I just quilted in straight lines along the zigs and zags.


I'm pretty sure my son thinks all moms take quilts on field trips to the park.


(New blog header?)

I'm posting this as a part of The Blogger's Quilt Festival on Amy's blog. Be sure to check out the other entries for hours and hours (literally) of inspiration.

In the mail

Check out what my friendly mailman brought me today.

Yep. Elizabeth Hartman's (of Oh, Fransson) new book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork. I preordered this on Amazon awhile ago, and (yes!) it was released early.

I'm really excited to spend some time studying it. So far, this is my favorite pattern:

If you haven't ordered a copy yet, be sure to check out the blog tour for a chance to win.

P.S. Are you ready for the Bloggers Quilt Festival? I just need to take pictures of my quilt, if it would ever stop raining!

Quilts for Kids #2: Turtle Power

At the beginning of the year I set a goal to make three quilts for charity. This is #3.


This is my second quilt for Quilts for Kids. If you haven't heard of Quilts for Kids, check it out. It's a really cool organization. They'll send you all of the fabric you need to make the quilt (you supply the batting), and when you send it back they give it to a child in the hospital.


I love the geometric print they sent for the backing.





I took this picture by accident and thought it was kinda cool.


P.S. I made my first cheesecake this week, and it was good. So good it was scary. Wah ha ha ha ha!

For the love of AMH

I tried to resist Innocent Crush...

I failed.

P.S. My new fabric is on top of the voile quilt I'm working on. More soon! So far, loving it.

One more Verna project. This time, it's a tree.

I used up some scraps left over from my Verna pillows to make a little wall hanging for my friend.


I used this tutorial from Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew. Allison made a pillow, but I used her tutorial for a mini quilt instead.


I echo quilted (my favorite) around the leaves. Easy and cute!

Falling for my new bag

I made myself a new fall bag, and I have to admit, I'm in pretty much in love. The pattern is the Runaround Bag from Anna at Noodlehead, and it's awesome. Her instructions are very clear, and the pattern has lots of little details that make the bag look really professional (even if you're a newbie like me!).


The fabric is from Valori Wells's Del Hi line.


I kind of wish I had taken the time to make my own bias tape, but I used the store-bought kind instead. Still love it. (The polka-dot interior fabric is Stones in Cinnamon, also from Del Hi.)


And here's where things get all kinds of fancy. Yes, my friends, that is a zipper. And a snap! It's definitely not perfect, but I think it turned out great.


And Susan at Tickled Paisley sent me this key fob. I'm not sure if she's psychic or something, but it matches my bag perfectly! Thanks, Susan! I responded to Susan's request for book recommendations on her blog, and she sent me this. Very nice.

P.S. The book I recommended? Ape House by Sara Gruen (author of Water for Elephants). Good book.

Quilted Verna shams

Here are the last two shams for my Verna pillow collection. I used the same basic idea from AmandaJean's Stacked Coins tutorial for Moda Bake Shop. I just changed up the measurements to fit a standard pillow form, and added an envelope closure for the back.

(Don't ask me what my pantsless son is doing in the background. I have no idea.)


I got a new walking foot for my machine. (Yes!) It is much better than my old one. I think we'll be good friends.

Pillow party

Remember the Verna quilt I made for my friend? She asked me to make her some matching pillows (yea! I get to play with more Verna!), and this is what I came up with.


The green pillow (Hocus Crocus Budding Green) is 12 x 16. The square pillows (Budding Green Stripe and Spring Bouquet Dewdrop) are 18 x 18. Verna is getting a little hard to find. I bought it here.


I added piping to the edges, because I'm crazy fancy like that. (Shh--I used this piping tutorial, and it was actually really easy. But it looks fancy, don't you think?)


For the back, I used a simple envelope closure.

See the quilted sham in the back? More on that soon.

Check out more Sew & Tell projects on Amy's blog!

Simple Abundance 2: The Return of Simple Abundance

Fat Quarterly quiltalong: check! Well, the top is finished anyway. This is a really easy and quick quilt. It just takes one jelly roll.

I used the leftovers from my Scruffily quilt, so they look like little quilty cousins.


I got to try out my brand new 1/4 inch foot, which definitely made my piecing more accurate. See how those seams match up? That's new! (Psst...they don't all look like that!)


I didn't plan out my squares very well, so I ended up with a few scrappy ones, but that's okay.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the back, so this one is on hold for now. That leave me with just one quiltalong (still working on Tracey's). So the logical thing to do was join another one. (That is the logical thing to do....right?) I love Rachel's Colorbrick quilt, so I'm quilting along with her.




I set aside this pile awhile ago, and I think it's going to make a cool fall Colorbrick.

P.S. I'm so glad Modern Family is back on. Dang, I love that show.

Stuck.

Dang, this song is catchy. I can't say I actually like it (the chick's voice really grates on me), but something about it makes me...happy. But not the reggae-style breakdown. That's embarrassing. Bonus points for a funny video starring Awesome!




This song...I love.
I was going to post the actual video (which is really funny), but it turns out that the real song substitutes "forget" with another word that starts with "f." Who knew!? This is the radio version.

The view from here

And so it begins. I've begun plodding along on hand-quilting my grandma's quilt.
I took a field trip to a quilt shop not far from my house, and the women working there were very helpful. They said the block is a variation on a carpenter's block.

No, I'm not really sewing outside in the 90-degree heat. I just hauled it outside for photographic purposes.


The quilt shop ladies helped me pick out a backing. They said that a plain cream muslin to match the background would be historically appropriate, so I went with that. For the binding, I picked this peachy solid. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it's just about an exact match to the peach in the quilt. (It's an Amy Butler solid...not sure of the name.)

Now. I have to admit I was not enjoying the hand-quilting at first. It's hard, and it hurts my fingers. Waaaaaaah. So I quit for about 24 hours and then started up again. I switched from hand-quilting thread to perle cotton and stuck on some thimbles, and I'm enjoying it much more. I really like the look of the perle cotton too.


I found two really helpful resources: these hand-quilting videos on Amy ala Mode's blog, and this post on Anna Maria Horner's blog.

I had big plans for the plain cream squares, but I'm going to switch to something a little simpler. That way, I might finish before my 3-year-old graduates from high school.

Quilting along

I've found myself involved in two quilt-alongs. The first is hosted by Tracey. We're working on a super fun pattern.




I love the way this is coming along. I'm using the fat quarters of Flower Sugar I won a while back and some tiny polka dots.

One quilt-along at a time really seems like enough...but then I saw the one hosted by the folks at Fat Quarterly.



This quilt-along takes just one jelly roll. I had the perfect amount of Simple Abundance left over from my Scruffily Quilt (really, within a quarter inch), so it seemed too good to pass up!


Last night I cut all my little pieces. I'm embarrassed to admit my arm was a little sore when I woke up today.

More soon!

Arcadia: Done! And I'm in love.

I think this is my favorite quilt I've made so far. It's the most representative of my design aesthetic. (I don't know what that means, but it always sounds impressive on Project Runway.)


The pattern is Kate Conklin's Charm Bracelets. It's a great pattern--Kate's instructions are very simple and straight-forward. Fabric is Arcadia and Kona Stone and Sage Green (argh!).


The binding is Kona Zucchini.


Ready to be gifted!

As for the back...my main goal was to not buy any fabric. Here's what I came up with.



I just used my extra Sage Green and Stone, and filled in the extra spaces with honey bun strips. I think it turned out pretty cool!

My creative director turned all diva on me and took over the photo shoot.





He's lucky he's cute.

Check out more Friday finishes on Amy's blog!

Quick quilt: Hooty Hoot!

I'm helping my friend Leah with some sewing for her nursery. She picked Riley Blake's Hooty Hoot fabric, which I love. She's helping us with Luke this week, so I surprised her with this quick quilt as a thank you.


The Hooty Hoot line has this adorable panel, so I just had to quilt and bind it.






I used the Starburst print for the backing and bound it with the stripes. Very fun and easy! I'm excited to work with more of this fabric.