Lots of little stitches.

These are almost done - just need to bind number two!

Meanwhile, I've discovered that I love to sit and embroider while I'm watching a little tv at night.  I feel useless when I'm not doing something with my hands, and there's only so many bindings to stitch... plus, for some reason my past obsession with knitting has died completely (to hopefully one day return? Has this happened to any of you?).

Maybe I'll do enough of these little cuties to have them be the centers of blocks for my next quilt.

I was lucky enough to pick up the Sublime Stitching book for $5 at a little weekly street fair nearby and I'm so happy to be finally putting the patterns to good use!

Next up... pears!

A problem.

I have a fabric problem. I'm completely addicted. And you know the addiction runs very deep when you're on a buying ban, and you still manage to get a fix! Exibit A:

A good friend of mine was helping someone move who needed to get rid of two big garbage bags of fabric. Umm.. yes please!! And this was only some it!

Exibit B:

Cate, my sister, wanted to buy me a gift for doing a lot of sewing for her new house... There's only one thing I want. More fabric!

I mean these Alexander Henry birdies?!? C'mon!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm going to be relishing my time this in the days to come as it looks like I may have (finally) lined up some work and will soon have much less time to sew. Working freelance is great in that it allows for full time sewing spurts, but it can be baaaad for the piggy bank. And working means being able to buy more fabric... why does it always come back to fabric??

A new place to sew!

Got my new sewing space all sorted out!

I need to hang more pretty little things on the wall, but otherwise, it's all set. I have a cutting table. Hurray!

And I get to look out these doors all day long. This is what I like about living in Los Angeles... it's a big not so pretty city, but you can find calm green spaces to be in.

Lastly, this is the first use of my design wall!

Still need to buy felt that is all the same color but meanwhile I love it!! No more moving fabric around on the floor while I try to keep the cats off it. I can actually arrange and rearrange to my heart's content!! And step back to gaze... I am oh so pleased about it.

And now, as I look at this photo, I see the need for some more rearranging! This is clearly the other half of the pink and green baby quilts for the twin girls. Decided to push out my usual love for squares and do something with triangles. Can't go wrong with a fun zig zag quilt. Now to sew it all together...

Birds & Blooms baby quilt all finished!

Got this fun and bright baby quilt all finished up!

Settled on the name "Birds & Blooms" for it, but I'll have to make another quilt with birds & flowers so that the name "Flowers & Fowl" is used.

Along with the new sewing room, I have a design wall and a new place to take photos of a finished quilt. I need to get the lighting sorted out more, but it's already better the past situation: spread out on the bed where it was really tough for me to get a wide shot.

And a couple of individual blocks close up...

A quick fix.

All quilting has been put on hold while my husband and I completely rearrange our house. This is not fun, but the major bonus is that now I'll have my very own sewing room! And it's a much sunnier room than I was previously sewing in. I'll post photos once I'm feeling like it's a bit more put together... Meanwhile, I needed a sewing fix! I use an ironing board that folds up and down from a door, and I discovered that the new door it was on doesn't stay put, making for an unacceptably wiggly ironing board. I instantly knew what the solution was!

Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson!'s great door stop tutorial! It's a fun and quick project and works perfectly, as demonstrated by one of my cats:

Pink & Green baby girl quilt top

Here's some quick photos of the latest simple baby quilt top.  Half of a set of two quilts for twin girls.

Not sure what to do for the second one... I'm thinking the same fabrics in a different simple design?  Not sure... anyone else made quilts for twins or have any ideas? I've found it really fun in the past.

I love the challenge of making two quilts that are a set, but not exactly the same.  Also, I probably enjoy it even more because I AM a twin!

A finished patio hang out!

Yesterday Cate (my twin sister who just bought a house) had her house warming party. I finished all of the pillows and cushions just in time! There is more work to be done on the patio in that the bare cement blocks will be covered and painted, but meanwhile, the sewing is done! Before:

And after! MUCH prettier and cozier!

I used this tutorial for the side and bottom cushions and it worked perfectly! Considering the bottom cushion is about 9.5 ft x 3 ft, I put it to the test, and it passed with flying colors. The hardest part of the whole process was actually getting the foam in the huge pillow because I couldn't find a zipper that was longer than 22 inches. But I managed and it all paid off! It's a really cozy hang out now and it got loads of use at the party yesterday!

By the way - does anyone know what this fabric is called or who makes it?? The shop was no help and there's nothing printed on the slevedge... it's a mystery I'd love to solve!

Progress all around.

Getting started on the next baby quilt that will be half of a set for twin girls.

Almost done with all of Cate's patio pillows and cushions! So far so good but the huge cushion I will be tackling tomorrow... we'll see!

And I got this quilted! Just have to get the binding on now.

Feels great to be getting lots done!

Labels.

I've decided it's way past time to be labeling my quilts - but didn't have the patience to wait the time it would take to get them made before finishing my last quilt, so I embroidered one!

I figure that it's not like I make so many quilts that I can't manage to make a tag for each one, right?  I like the result and I think that it sticks with the "handmade" idea.  Plus, I really like the idea that I can change the colors and the label can match the quilt.  I'm thinking this might become my standard way of labelling! Quilts at least... for other items, it would be too labor intensive...

I finished the Stacked Coin Quilt!

Here it is!  All finished! There's nothing like pulling a finished quilt out of the dryer and finally getting to see it in its fully crinkled glory.

It's the biggest quilt I've free motioned.  I luckily don't seem to have that many struggles with shoving a big ol' quilt around in my sewing machine.  Maybe I just don't know better, but I seem to manage alright.  I don't roll the quilt (much) but I bunch and shove it all over the place.

This quilt was based on my Gender Neutral Baby Quilt but full sized, and the color scheme is similar, but somewhat more "adult". I'm happy with the results and I hope its owner will be too!!

And three fun log cabin blocks for the back!

Birds & Blooms quilt top!

Or should be it Flowers & Fowl?? Can't wait to quilt this one!

Some finished blocks for the next baby quilt

Finished up these fun colorful blocks yesterday.

I'm happy with how they came out.  I thought I might be mixing and matching too many different fabrics, but there are a lot of florals and I think the combo of that and the solids ties them all together.  I anticipate doing my usual white sashing and framing but I need to figure out if I'm going to leave the blocks different sizes or trim them down to all be the same size... hmm... Decisions decisions!

There will probably be a bit of radio silence from me for the coming week as I was put on a jury for a trial that will last all week.  However, the days are short so I'm hoping to get a lot of my sister's curtains and pillows done through out the week!

Some patio fancy-ing

My twin sister, Cate, recently bought a very cute house about a mile away from me in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake.

The house was built in 1926, and she is the second owner.  Needless to say, that doesn't happen often in Los Angeles!

Renovations and improvements are under way and I've been assigned all sewing duties!  I'll be making some curtains and throw pillows, but the biggest task is making a huge cushion to have on a built in bench that's on the back patio.

I'm going to put this tutorial to the test, as the cushion will measure almost 9.5 feet by 3 feet!   I'm going to use this fabric - does anyone know who makes/designs it?  There's nothing printed on the slevedge and I called the store where I bought it (Michael Levine's in downtown Los Angeles) and they said that the tube didn't have the info either... I'll need to head down there again soon, so I'll double check that, but meanwhile, anyone recognize it?  It also comes in an orange and yellow colorway, it's 54" wide and it's got a canvas-y feel to it.  It's truly beautiful!

Home again!

Back home and immediately stuck with jury duty.  I'll find out today if I get on a trial, and therefore it lasts longer. Keeping my fingers crossed that today is the last day, but meanwhile it's kept me from my usual insane quilting all day...Hope to get back to it soon as I've been really missing it! I'm managed to get some new blocks started - some fun bold colors! Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

And I'm really almost done with this...

Ha.

Quiet from me these days as it's family time in New Hampshire (I miss my sewing machine!!) but I found this funny.  Clearly the focus of my blog is QUITE clear!!

A simple tote

Just whipped up this tote that's a gift for my sister who I'm off to visit in New Hampshire, where we all grew up.  She lives in Gabon, Africa so we don't get to catch up in person that frequently and I'm very excited. I offered to make her a bag and she requested a tote.  Here it is!

It measures about 12" x 16".  Hard to go wrong with this amazing Anna Marie Horner Drawing Room fabric!

And the inside, which I always use as an excuse to keep free motion quilting in, oh... every project I make!  I'm on a sewing supplies buying ban so I had to line the bag with scrap quilt batting (I'm all out of interfacing!) so why not quilt it?!?

I hope she likes it!

My favorite quilting resources

First little glimpse at progress on the commissioned coin quilt.  Just the binding left to go!

I'm really no expert, but I've been asked by some people about the various steps of making a quilt, and as I'm completely self taught (I've learned everything from blogs and books!) I thought I'd put all of my favorite tutorials/posts in one place.  I've read a lot of blogs about the process of making quilts and to me, with these specific posts, anyone can make a quilt.  I'm proof of it because this is how I learned!

In terms of making the quilt top, to each their own!  That's where it's all about taste and design.  The one thing I am not is a perfectionist, so I'm not all about perfect piecing.   I've gotten better with practice and this is a great place to read about the details, from cutting to pressing...

http://quilting.about.com/od/piecingtechniques/Piecing_Sewing_Methods_for_Quilters.htm

Sizes of different quilts and different adjustments can be found here:

http://www.amishcountrylanes.com/Pages/QuiltSize.shtml

For basting layers of the quilt:

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2007/09/one-way-to-baste-quilt.html

For quilting there is lots to be read but I'm personally a free motion quilter.  I love this discussion on flickr.  It's filled with lots of specific tips from different quilters.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/quilts/discuss/72157604324619530/

And this post with a video is amazingly helpful!

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/03/free-motion-quilting.html

Once you've quilted all that's left is the binding and this is a great tutorial:

http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/photos/continuous_quiltbinding/index.html

And then your quilt is all done!!  I've made many quilts simply by following all of these directions.  I've never had another quilter see how I do any of my work so there's a good chance they would look on in horror at my methods, but in the end, I always end up with a pretty quilt, so I don't worry myself too much with that!  I have so much fun making my quilts and that's what matters!

A full sized coin quilt top!

I recently got commissioned to make a full sized version of my gender neutral baby quilt and I just finished the top.  It's clearly inspired by a stacked coin quilt, but I like wider and fewer columns than you usually see.

I made some changes on the color scheme in order for it to read a bit more adult than the baby version.  There's still the same warms (orange & yellow) but I have more blues and greens and also added the chocolate brown - it reads a bit dark in the photo...  The plan is to also bind it in brown.  I really really love brown as a neutral and I think that combined with the bright colors and white sashing/framing, it makes the quilt lively, yet grown up somehow...  I can't wait to get the back made and then quilt it to see it all come together!!

What a Bunch of Squares Baby Quilt

I got this one all finished up and washed!

Meandering free motion quilting + a quick wash and dry = crinkly goodness!!

It came out much better than I had initially anticipated so I'm really happy about that.  It's the Denyse Schmidt pattern but I made fewer blocks that measured 15" square, so it now measures about 45" x 60".

What fun it is to make blocks without really worrying about perfectly measuring and cutting.  As long as they were vaguely the right size, and there was variety among them, they were "right"!  Then framed them all in white and I was done with the top!  Quick and easy and FUN!

Yum!

When you start a day off with the mail delivering this how can you go wrong? Had to get some more of the wonderful Katie Jump Rope (and more) for a commissioned quilt and magically some other lovely (mostly pink) fabric snuck into the order... how did that happen?!?

I'm making lots of progress here... Just have to hand stitch down the binding now!

I just realized that the fabric I mentioned is designed by Denyse Schmidt, and the pattern of this quilt is too.  Gee - think I'm a fan??

And to wrap up this post, I'd just like to say how wonderful this whole community is. I know that this is not news, but I started my blog so recently and to have so many lovely people say such nice things to me right off the bat is really so so wonderful. It makes me happy! So thank you!!