Warmth in the North

putting my rotary cutter to work

    I've spent a lot of time cutting over the last few days.  First there was 48, 9" squares for the Dead Simple Quilt Along.  I love the fabrics but they're really close in colour so I'm hoping my palette choice won't bite me in the end.

    Next, I sorted out fabric for the Geese in a Ring Swap, as I've signed up for round 3.  I hope everyone is ok with my fabric choices.  I've been reading all the comments in the group but some people are staying quiet and I have to get started. 

    Finally, while doing the laundry, I cut out 112 charm squares for the Sewing Summit Color Wheel Charm Swap.  The tutorial on Oh, Fransson! is really detailed and clear, it was just a matter of being accurate and taking my time.  Then I sorted them into pairs, which in theory will make the swapping process easier.

    Cutting seems like half the work in sewing or quilting.  It takes a long time if I want to be accurate but the results are worth it.  Now I just have to get some sewing time in but that may take a few days.

nothing much going on

    I'm not up to much of anything but there are a few things I'd forgotten to post.  First up is my plain, little name tag.  I'm going to the Sewing Summit in a few weeks and I hate wearing name tags.  You might think those two things are unrelated but conventions sort of require name tags, don't they?  They are providing some but I saw that other people were making their own and it got me thinking.  Maybe, just maybe, if I make my own I'll not be such a grouch when I wear it.

    Some bunting with my name stitched in my writing and I was done.  It's pretty tiny, less than 2"x3" but I really like it and it should do the trick.  Jeni, Amanda, and Faith all have pretty fantastic handmade name tags, if you're looking for some inspiration.  

    In entirely unrelated news, on Friday this lovely little card was in my post office box.  I'm fairly certain that it's for all the do. Good Stitches circles that have sent quilts to My Very Own Blanket but it was so nice to get such a sweet card in the mail.  As a bonus they called me Ms. Kennedy, which is fairly hilarious, sort of like being called ma'am by people at least twice my age.  Yes, the things I get enjoyment from are quite silly.

a makeup roll

    After seeing Erin's review of Rachel's makeup roll pattern for Travel Handmade, I knew there was one in my future.  It's the brush storage that drew me in, mine always get chucked to the bottom of the makeup bag, seeing them all lined up is so nice.  Armed with some Heirloom and a bit of Kona Hibiscus, I made my own and it'll be coming along with me to the Sewing Summit.

    The pattern is very detailed and easy to follow, I'm tempted to make a few more as Christmas gifts.  The only change I made was to use an hair elastic rather than a crochet loop fastener.  It's a little bit of a cheat, instead of needing to know exactly how full the roll will always be, the elastic creates a bit of wiggle room.  I can't wait to fill it up and take it along with me to fun and exciting places.

little luxuries

    I've been playing with some tiny bits of Liberty of London tana lawn for the last few days.  There's no way I'll ever be able to make an entire quilt out of Liberty fabrics, they're hard to get your hands on and pricey.  I do have a plan that just might let me make the most out of every bit that I do have.  It involves a lifetime of English paper piecing, my new addiction, so I'd better get started. 

for the love of solids

    A while ago I joined For the Love of Solids on Flickr.  It's my first swap in a reeaally long time and was a ton of fun. We had to make make our partner one large item and one small item using only solids.  Let me tell you it was harder than I thought. 

   This pillow cover has already been mailed off to my partner.  It took me forever to decided what to make her, I tried to use the colours she mentioned and poured over her inspiration mosaic and photo stream trying to figure out what she'd like.  I settled on the simple plus pattern because it tends to make the fabrics the star of the show without being boring. 

    While I like the pillow I love this little pouch.  It's my first attempt at English paper piecing and I think the hexies turned out really well.  I used this tutorial for a make-up bag but I imagine my partner can use it for whatever she likes.  I stuffed it with a few other goodies and along with the pillow cover put it in the mail last week.  Now I'm waiting and hoping she likes everything.

Celebrate Colour

    Have you heard about Celebrate Colour?  There are all sorts of categories, wearables, home dec, yarn, and needlepoint.  Almost everything is covered and you don't have to make something every month which is just my pace.  Plus as autumn has well and truly arrived here, it'll be nice to look on the good side of autumn as opposed to dreading the coming winter.

    I found these pictures in my Flickr! favorites and they're exactly what I miss about fall.  It's all brown and yellow up here but growing up everything was rich and vibrant.  Reds, purples and golden hues are everywhere in southern Ontario.  I'll be using those colours again over the next few months, as well as watching everyone else having fun with the colours of the season.

little bunting pouch

    This little pouch has been on my to do list for a little while now and it's finally finished.  It doesn't really have any purpose but I wanted to play around with bunting and all these scraps were just calling out to be used.  It currently contains all my hexies supplies which had been scattered across the coffee table so it is coming in handy.

    The photo isn't very detailed but I used fusible web and then machine appliqued it onto the muslin.  Pretty straightforward but I'm thinking of trying it out on a larger scale for a little baby quit and wanted to see if it would work without being too much of a pain.  I'm not exactly sure if raw edges are a good idea for a baby but I love my little pouch anyway.

starting out

    I should be showing you a finished quilt today but I need a little break from all those zigzags so even writing about it is going to have to wait.  After everything was done on the quilt I took a few minutes to start another project.  Once I sketched out a ton of things on graph paper I finally cut everything out and have it all sitting next to the sewing machine ready to start sewing.

    It will be for my swap partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap.  She asked for pink and aqua and I've added a bit of gray to anchor everything.  It's hard to try to figure out what to make for someone else in a secret swap, very hard, but I think I've kept her ideas and preferences in mind.  Hopefully she'll like it!

obnoxiously pink

    I'm staring at this picture and thinking that I should write something about the quilt I've just started but honestly it's the new iron cover that's grabbing my attention.  Here's the thing, it's obnoxiously pink, has a fantastic geometric pattern and is padded.  As an added bonus it was around ten dollars and while I know it's twin is gracing my friend's ironing board back in Toronto, it's probably the only one of its kind in these parts.

    The old cover that this board came with wasn't up to snuff anymore and I kept intending to sew a new one but never got around to it.  Then when I went home a few weeks ago I helped an amazingly talented friend with all the flowers for our friends wedding.  After a day of figuring out how to down flowers, harder than you might think, we went on a little shopping break.  I'm pretty sure she already knew these existed but as soon as she grabed hers off the rack I knew I needed one too.  It's already making ironing a little bit easier and every time I look at it that day comes to mind, which makes it all the more special.

the most boring post ever...

    My mother asked me to add new pictures to my blog... so here it goes.  Picture #1 is of the ridiculously large amount of fabric that has shown up here recently.  Do I have to admit that there may be more in hiding?  Plus a new sewing machine has arrived, yippee!

    Picture #2... my new birdie sling.  I'm not sure what to say about this, love the pattern, fabric and Amy Butler in general.  Hmm, looks like that's about all I've got.  This is the problem with a redo, I mean how much more is there to say the second time around?

    Picture #3 shows off the 328 yards of Blue Sky Alpacas Suri Merino that I'd like to find a pattern for.  It's wonderful and soft and filled with awesome... plus it was purchased using the gift certificate Columba, my little sister, gave me for Christmas. 

   Ta da, new pictures with as little content as possible.  I shall now return to knitting while watching The Scent of Green Papaya.  By the way knitting while reading subtitles is surprisingly hard but I don't speak Vietnamese so I'm just going to have to knit slowly.