Warmth in the North

swoon for otto

    If you're a quilter or knitter there's this fantastic side effect to getting older, your friends start making babies.  I don't really mind being twenty-nine but it's nice that there are some perks and babies are definitely a perk.  Not only are they adorable but they also come with the perfect excuse to make things, cute things that you probably wouldn't get away with making for adults. 

    When I started making these blocks Otto wasn't quite born yet and no one knew if he was going to be a boy or a girl.  I dug into my stash and decided on some Prince Charming in the indigo and honey colourways.  They don't scream baby to me but I think they work for a little boy who'll hopefully drag this around as he gets older.  All that white might seem a bit crazy but I took a chance and his mama loves it, which is a win, plus it's totally machine washable.

    A little label with his birthday was the start of the backing.  I wanted to keep things simple but tied into the front so I used a bit more Prince Charming with lots and lots of white.  To be honest I like the backing just as much as the front, although in the interest of full disclosure I must admit it's sideways... don't know how it happened but after all that quilting there was no going back.

    By the time I got around to binding the quilt everyone had been enjoying Otto's company for a few months so I needed to get a move on.  Some Kona navy with a last little bit of Prince Charming, a few minutes for machine binding, a quick date with a washing machine and it was ready to ship off.  With any luck his quilt will have a long life but for now it's keeping Otto warm after his bath... what more could a baby quilt ask for?

perfect curves

    

    Recently I purchased a Curve Master Presser Foot after Christina at The Sometimes Crafter recommended it for making her Retro Flowers Quilt.  Having never pieced curves I thought it might be worth the investment and all the reviews that I could find were positive.  Most people mentioned that it takes a few tries to get going but it took me forever.

    Don't be discouraged if the foot's not working for you right away eventually you'll move beyond the miss-matched mess that you can see on those blocks above.  I stuck with it and finally figured out how to get those perfectly sewn curves.  Since most reviews just tell you how easy it is I thought I'd go through some things that helped me beyond this video. 

• It's ok that the foot is loose, at least on my Janome the wiggling doesn't make a difference
• At first things might feel strange because you need to hold the two pieces apart while attempting to not stretch fabric cut on the bias, after a while you'll get used to it but don't get frustrated when the instinct to hold your fabric together takes over
• I find having the "crust" or concave piece on the bottom and the "pie" or convex piece on top to gives me the best view 
• Sew slowly, you're going to have to pay attention to more things than usual so give yourself a break until you have the technique down pat
• Buy the tweezers, they'll save your fingers

    All in all I'm happy with my new presser foot and I'd recommend it to anyone like me who's never pieced curves before or who just doesn't want to fuss with pins.  Now I'd better get back to piecing the rest of the blocks for my Retro Flowers since it's supposed to be a Christmas gift.

hole in the barn door tutorial

    It's almost November and my turn to quilt for do. Good Stitches has rolled around again.  This time I'm asking everyone to make me 2 Hole in the Barn Door blocks, one in coral and one in navy.  It's one of those blocks that has a ton of names, Churn Dash and Monkey Wrench are the most popular but I like Hole in the Barn Door because I'm contrary.  Anyway, if you use this tutorial you'll end up with 12" finished/12.5" unfinished blocks.

Use a scant 1/4" seam unless otherwise noted.

I press my seams open, feel free to use whatever you're most comfortable with.

Cut:

2 - 4" x 4" in white

2 - 4" x 4" in print

2 - 2.5" x 13" in white

2 - 1.5" x 13" in print

1 - 6.5" x 6.5" in print

   

To make 4 Half Square Triangles mark the white squares from one corner to the other diagonally.  Sew the white squares to the print squares 1/4" on either side of of the marked line.  Cut along the marked line, press, and trim to 3.5" square.

Sew the print strips to the white strips lengthwise.  Press and cut each strip into two 6.5" strips.  Layout your block and sew it together.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

    You'll have a 12.5" block in no time.  I chain pieced both my blocks at the same time and that made things all the faster.  Hopefully this makes sense but if you have any questions let me know.

good grief, that was amazing!

    This weekend basically blew my mind and my camera apparently.  I did manage to take a few pictures during the shop hop on Friday and it looks like Salt Lake City has a huge quilting community to support all the stores.  I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I don't know how many times "Hey, where did you get that?" came out of my mouth.

    I'd never seen this much quilting fabric in the same place before.  Yes, my life is sad.  Considering the sales that all the shops had going on it's surprising that I didn't go crazy and buy everything.  It was almost as if I my poor brain was unable to handle the joy and would only let me buy so much fabric.   And all the shops had amazing give aways so even if you didn't spend a dime you were bound to come away with a stack of fabric.

    In the end fat quarters were my downfall.  They look so small but that's 6.25 yards and doesn't even begin to take into account all the other fabric they just gave us.  Between the swag bags, all the class giveaways, the shop hop giveaways, the fat quarter swap, and the charm square swap I have a ton of fabric to tuck into my stash today.

    I've got hardly any pictures to share but trust me the Sewing Summit was amazing!  It was so wonderful to meet everyone in person and make new friends.  As soon as I unpack and sort through everything I'll be back.  Maybe my mind will even quiet down enough that I'll be able to sew something. 

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.

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.

a dead simple quilt

    

    I decided to join Lynne of Lily's Quilts Dead Simple Quilt along and today she posted the fabric requirements.  First we had to pick out palettes for our quilts and I choose this one from Design Seeds.  It's almost all shades of gray but I love it.  If you look in my closet at any given moment you'll see a disproportionate amount of gray, it's my colour of choice.  For some reason I shy away from it in quilting, so this is the prefect opportunity for me to play with my favorite colour.

    This morning right after I read the fabric requirements I reached into my stash and started picking out fabric.  All of the deeper purples come from Heirloom and those lighter grayish purples are from Parisville but everything else is really randomly chosen.  I'm in love with the stack of fabric and can't wait to start cutting.

do. Good Stitches :: wonky log cabins

    These are my September contribution to do. Good Stitches, wonky log cabins for Melissa's quilt.  She asked us to use this tutorial and use bright fabrics.  I used it as an excuse to cut into some cute owl fabric from Spoonflower and used them for the centers.  All the other fabrics were just grab out of the stash and I'm hoping they're bright enough. 

    I'm also a touch unhappy with where those owls are sitting in the blocks.  I wish I'd managed to get them centered, in both blocks they're sitting on the upper right hand side of the blocks.  Once again wonky does me in, I think I over think it but I'm going to keep trying.

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.