Monday, January 28, 2013

Living and Dying

      This weekend my husband became a great uncle for the first time.  I made this quilt for baby Braydon in November/December and on Friday, I could finally finish the label and send it by personal messenger to its intended owner for his birthday.  It's my first quilt for a person!  It's titled, "Welcome Home."

Top

Back (and label before the text)
 

     There are tons of process photos and a mosaic on my Flickr photostream.  The design is my own but based on lots of other cross/plus/x quilts from Pinterest and blogs and such.  It was simple to figure out with a piece of graph paper and sized to fit the batting I had on hand.  My spouse, for a co-designing credit, picked all of the fabrics which are Kona cotton solids in charcoal, corn, and royal.  The binding is a Quilter's showcase print and the back is Snuggle Flannel from JoAnn Fabric.  I don't recommend the snuggle flannel for gift quilts as it really pilled in the prewash and although it is snuggly-soft, it already looks old!

     I had to send my gift along by courier because I had other plans for my Saturday.  Mom and I signed up for a fabric hand-dying workshop at the Textile Center with Kristin Lawson from the MMQG.  We measured, mixed, and soaked a ton of little fat quarters.  Here are the results:


     The stacks, from left to right are: 12-step "cool" color wheel, 8-step tints in boysenberry, and 9-step Chroma Bridge from sun yellow to intense blue.  Afterward, during "playtime," I used some extra dye dregs to dip a couple of flour sack dish towels and make some pretty eyelet ruffle in a very watered-down boysenberry shade.  We got to choose our own colors for the exercises and relied upon Kristin's expertise.  We learned a ton and I now feel confident I could do this at home.  The possibilities are endless!

Now I must dash because January is almost over and I have a few Flickr swap projects that are dangerously close to their deadlines!

TTFN!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

More Pillow Talk

It was my mom's birthday last week.  (I mention her a ton on this blog 'cause she's just so awesome.)  Anywho, this is what I made for her special day:

Front

Back
     I was inspired by this quilt at Diary of a Quilter (one of my earliest pins -- almost a year ago!)  I picked up the Sarah Jane Studio's Children at Play fabric quite a while ago; it's one of the few pieces I have that's bigger than a quarter yard.  This was also my very first zipper experience but it went pretty well.  The nylon zipper is ancient!  I experimented with some variegated thread (Coats and Clark, Dual DutyXP #9314) on the back which made it really fun to do.  Here's a closeup:



     Besides the main applique/fabric design mentioned earlier, I especially liked this tutorial at Pile O'Fabric for the back.  I added piping and quilted it using my feed dogs...no FMQ for this girl yet! The batting is Fusi-Boo (fusible bamboo.) It's quite thin and was easy to work with but I can't attest for washing/durability.  The insert is a twenty-inch square duck down pillow from IKEA for only $7.  I named it Mister Cuddlekins and intended to keep him but after many hugs, decided I shouldn't give my mother a pillow cover with no filling for her birthday.  Ah well, another trip to IKEA then.



Sunday, January 20, 2013

Spearing not Sewing

This is one of the things I do when I'm not in my sewing room.

Spearfishing in Minnesota
Edit: I realized this isn't much information to go on...just a terrible cellphone photo so I'll explain.  I live in Minnesota and go fishing in the summer and in the winter.  Usually, for ice fishing, I drill a hole with an auger and drop in a line with a bobber and wait for a bite.  This is different, this is spear fishing.  Basically, you cut a television-sized hole in the ice and cover it with a windowless room (called a darkhouse but sometimes it's just a tent.)  Then you sit, leaning over the hole a little, holding a multi-pronged spear attached to a rope and waiting for a northern pike to be interested enough in your decoy to come visit.  Then, if you see a fish and you want to eat that fish, you stab it.


Here is a short video I made, showing a northern pike interested in my decoy:


And here is a northern pike afterward:


And last, here are some darkhouses:

That's my loving spouse, his high water bibs, and the ice from the hole.
























I realize that this has nothing to do with what I usually blog about here and that it might not be your cup of tea but it's pretty interesting and I wanted to share.  That's my grandfather's spear and those are my dad's darkhouses. I grew up hunting and fishing and we eat everything we take.  I used to be less interested but the older I get (and certainly after the stress of war) I really enjoy spending the time outside, the quiet, and being attentive.   For me, it's akin to what I get out of sewing.  Not only is the process both stimulating and relaxing but the outcomes are so delightful! 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Time to Cozy Some Tea

     It's time for the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild's monthly meeting.  Our January challenge was to complete a project using our oldest fabric.  This was difficult for me as I'm pretty new to sewing as well as poor so I haven't got an incredible stash to draw upon.  My mom, on the other hand, has a horrifyingly vast enviable collection.  While helping her look around for oldest fabric among heaps of old fabric (she finally decided upon some that is actually older - as in printed flour sacks from the 1940s - versus the fabric she's held onto the longest (a pink, synthetic suiting material my dad gave her while they were dating.)  I digress...

     Anyway, while I was there I remembered a project we started together before I got my sewing machine and actually learned to sew.  I must have asked for a sewing lesson so she let me pick out a piece from said stash and we decided to make a replica of the ruffled tea cozy she used when I was little.  (I loved that thing!)  I picked this red and navy lightweight canvas that I have fond memories of from childhood...you know, seeing it around in the sewing room and such.  Turns out -we produced a ruffle, the tea cozy shell and lining all in one day and then we promptly forgot about it forever for a couple of years.

Before
     Thanks to the MMQG challenge, I rescued it from its drawer at mom's and brought it home to finish it off.  This fabric is my age or maybe a year or two older.  The only information I have about it is from the selvage, "An exclusive Brookhaven Print Pattern # 234."
     I googled this and did find a few pieces of other Brookhaven prints from the same era for sale (or already sold) on Etsy.  They seem pretty universally attractive.

     It's funny because I've liked this print my entire life.  My sister requested it for a custom laundry bag when she went off to college.  And now that I'm a modern quilter, I still think it rocks.  One of my Flickr friends said it was too pretty to cut into. I'm so glad to have a kind, generous, patient, meticulously-fabric-saving mother on my side to make this reunion possible!

After!
     So today I finally put it together (and made all sorts of silly mistakes as I did...I swear my head unscrews between uses!)  It's insulated with a layer of Insul Bright as well as a layer of Warm and Natural cotton batting.  I then felt compelled to make a quilted potholder/trivet out of one of the scraps and attached them together with a button/buttonhole.
    I looked up a few tutorials for seam-binding scallops (here and here) and that's something I'd definitely like to try more of in the future.
   

   
     It is completely functional...but I would appreciate it if no one looked too close to find all the ways it could have been more skillfully crafted... :)
     The important thing now is to distract you with some expertly brewed tea.


Mom's fabric, Grandma's tea set