New York Beauty Design

Yes, the New York Beauty blocks are finished! Forty blocks ready to become a beautiful quilt. A beautiful quilt for my husband. I've never made a quilt for him. I don't know how I managed to sew and quilt my entire adult life without making one for him. I suppose I was waiting for just the right one, and this one is definitely right for him. He's a big fan of Mariner's Compass quilts and New York Beauty has many similar characteristics...the sharp points, the circular patterns, and the bright colors.

Now I need to choose a layout. He designed this layout:

We decided to go with a square layout which means there will be four leftover blocks. They will likely become a throw pillow. My design wall wasn't quite big enough to hold everything so the top row is a little floppy and the bottom row is mostly on the floor, but it's good enough to get the idea.

Here's another choice:

 

For this layout, I experimented with keeping like patterns together. The four center blocks are all the same, and each of the three corner blocks around that match each other.

And here's one more choice:

With this layout, I tried to pay more attention to the placement of lights and darks, but I don't think you can really see that once they are all together.

So, what do you think? It's sort of like going to the eye doctor...better one or two? And I say something like, "I'm not sure. Can I see that again? One is pretty good, but two isn't so bad either." Eventually, he forces me to choose something, and then we have to do it again. Better two or three? Gosh, this is hard. There are things I like about each layout and I'm sure I could play around with this and come up with about a dozen more.

I know which one I like the best right now, but I'm gonna sleep on it and see if it stays the same when I take a fresh look tomorrow. I'd love to know which one you like the best.

Catching Up

Wow, long time no post. So happy to be here today. The working world grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go for a while which left little time for sewing. I'm not complaining. I love my job and am thankful to have it, but that does mean going with the give and take that comes with it. It's not possible to go totally cold turkey with the sewing though so there have been a few things going on.

Can you guess what this is? I made it because the days are getting cooler. It uses the same techniques as those used for making fabric bowls. There is fleece on the inside and Peltex II in the middle to make it  nice and sturdy. If you haven't figured it out, I'll show you at the end of this post.

I've been doing a bit of purging lately. Our quilt guild is having a fund raising quilting/sewing/crafting yard sale in a few weeks to help one of our fellow guild members who has mounting medical expenses from a sick adult daughter. I decided it's time to let go of some of the supplies that I know I'll never use. It feels so good to be passing them along to someone who will enjoy them.

The Crafty Block of the Month is featuring paper piecing this month. I've always wanted to make a block like this. I love flying geese on a curve. This is one of two paper pieced blocks in the project. I've selected fabric for the last one and plan to finish it up this weekend.

I pulled out the fall decorations a few days ago. These placemats are from a free pattern that came with the fabric collection. They were super easy to make and still need a bit more quilting added so they will hold up in the wash.

The back of these placemats are a fun pumpkin print. I am certain we'll enjoy both sides of these this season.

 

I'm still plugging away at my New York Beauty project. Only a few more blocks to go.

And the project shown at the top of the post is...

...a critter bed. Gotta make sure they have a warm place to sleep.

Hope you all are enjoying the cooler weather, and the sewing and quilting inspiration that a new season brings.

Curved Piecing with Craftsy BOM

Sewing was at a minimum this week, though I did get my two blocks made for Craftsy's Block of the Month. This month was all about curves.

I love the two blocks for this month, all made from Drunkard's Path blocks. The instructions were great (as they always are!) but I did deviate from the instructions for cutting these. Amy has you use a rotary cutter for cutting curves, and she specifically recommends using templates from Marti Michell. First, my rotary cutter and I have a very healthy respect for each other and we know our limits. Cutting precise curves is just not happening with a rotary cutter. Instead, I used a pencil to draw the curved line, then used my trusty Gingher fabric scissors for all the curved cutting.

Quilt blocks with curved piecing belong in a class all their own...there's just something extra beautiful about them. My only issue is that you have to use so many pins. I'm not a big fan of pinning anyway, and the only way to get a good curve is to pin, pin, pin. I started by doing each block individually...pin, stitch, press, pin, stitch, press, but finally decided to pin a bunch, then stitch, then press. I enjoyed the process better that way.

Fabric selection is starting to get tricky since I'm getting low on so many of the prints. We're getting near the end though, so it should all work out just fine.

I am so happy I embarked on this free Craftsy class. It has been fun learning new skills, practicing different techniques, and watching this sampler quilt evolve.

Next month is the last month for making blocks, then we'll be putting it all together. I'm hoping to add this project to the finish pile at the end of the year.

Little Boy Blue Quilt

Took a break from all the projects in progress to make a baby quilt this weekend. One of the guys at the office is expecting his first child. His son was supposed to arrive in October, then the end of September, then the middle of September, and now it looks like it could be any day. So, I thought it was time to get busy. I don't know him very well since he just joined our group a couple of months ago so I wasn't quite sure where to start. 

What to make, what to make...I asked him what colors were in the baby's nursery. Light blue and dark blue. Light blue as in traditional baby blue? No, the light blue has maybe some teal or aqua to it. And that's the extent of the information I had for making this quilt. I abandoned the idea of making anything that would remotely match the nursery, but I did stick with the blue theme.

Jeni over at In Color Order has a great tutorial for a quilt called "Addition". I thought her design would work perfectly for a family expecting a new addition and it also represents all the positive things a new addition brings. With concept in mind, I hit the stash. I pulled every boyish blue I had along with some whites and grays. As with any project, the fabric choices were added to and taken away from until a quilt top was born. The end result uses all tonal blues with a strong leaning toward royal and navy. The teals and aquas just didn't make the cut and the whites and grays were too harsh.

The back was just as much fun to make as the front. Rather than a plain back, two giant plus signs are incorporated. This quilt can be used on either side! The Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass in Blue/White brings all the blues together nicely.

I used a dark gray Aurifil 50 weight thread for quilting. It ended up as a simple maze of straight line quilting since I started in the center and spiraled out.

The finished quilt is a little big for a baby quilt (approximately 46 x 54), but it will be great for throwing on the ground for a little one to lay on and roll around on. It has been washed so it is all soft and crinkly.

This project is another all stash project. All stash, no cash...that might be my new motto. And the funny thing is, even though I have made several stash projects this year, I have not noticed even a small dent in the size of my stash. Looks like I'll be stash busting for quite a bit longer.

Cleaning Things Up

I spent this weekend cleaning things up. The blog has been spiffed up with a new header and my original patterns have been added to the sidebar with direct links to my Etsy shop.

The inventory from my closed brick and mortar shop is moving out the door at a steady pace. Thank you to everyone who has helped with that. A common theme among former shop owners I have talked to seems to be the basement or garage that is full of old inventory. I am determined not to be one of those folks and my goal is to have everything sold by the end of the year. Here's all that remains:

Cleaning up also has me thinking about what I want to do next. I love this wonderful world of quilters and I want to find a way to continue to be more than a by-stander in the industry. At the same time, I have to find the right balance of work, play, and family. This has been a year of rest and reflection for my quilting life, and it may take another year of exploration before I decide where to land. And hey, even though I'm restless right now, I may decide that this spot of blogging, quilting, and sewing is just enough and exactly where I want to be.

NYB Progress - Four More Finished

So, my handy assistant has turned into a bit of a stern supervisor, monitoring my progress and making sure I'm staying on task so that he can pick the next group of fabric on schedule. It's all good, though. I like the extra accountability, even if it is to an 11-year-old.

Here's the next group of four blocks. This block design is my favorite so far. I like the angle of the star points and also the dimension added by using two fabrics. There are only two more groups to make. Eight blocks. It is very exciting to be this close.

Now it's time to start thinking about how I'm going to quilt this baby. I don't want to quilt anything that distracts from the blocks and at the same time I don't want to be a wimp and quilt in the ditch just to get it done. Maybe this weekend I'll put pencil to paper and experiment with a few designs.

Weekend Sewing - A Lunch Tote, Headband, and NYB

It's always a good weekend when the commitments are minimal and the majority of my time can be spent in the sewing room. My big project for the weekend is this insulated lunch tote.

It is adapted from this tutorial. I'm happy I made it, but if I did it again, I'd do so many things differently. I put clear vinyl on the inside to keep any condensation from soaking through. It was very difficult to sew with. Since it stuck to my sewing machine, I had to add a layer of paper underneath so it would slide through my machine, then tear the paper away after each seam.

Then, the inside edges aren't finished. I know how to make a finished lining for a bag, and I should have adjusted the instructions so I could do so with this project, but the lazy in me took over and just went with the basic instructions.

The insulator fabric I use is Therma-Flec and it is just fabric; there is no batting attached to it. What that means is that every surface of this lunch tote has outer-fabric-insulation-batting-insulation-inside-fabric-vinyl. That is six layers, so when sides are being sewn together, it is TWELVE layers. I used my walking foot so that helped some, but wow, what a workout it was getting this put together.

On the positive side, the color combo is perfect. The tutorial called for a buckle but I didn't have one. I like the button and ponytail holder alternative. I like that it is insulated. It's pretty roomy, too. It should easily hold several food containers and a couple of ice packs. It is seven inches across the front, six inches deep, and nine inches tall.

Because this project was a bit challenging for me, I worked on a couple of smaller things in between. This headband was made using this tutorial.

The tutorial called for 5 1/2" of elastic for the base, but I ended up needing 7 1/2". Either I have a big head or I like my headbands to have a more relaxed fit. This was fast, easy, and a great way to use up scraps. I plan to make some more of these and may play around with using orphan blocks and other pieced scraps for them.

I'll also play around with the width. I like this width for showing off the fabric, but something narrower might suit my taste a little better.

My college son came home for the weekend and asked me to do some repair work to his favorite blue jeans. Some of the holes were starting to become more revealing than he liked.

It's hard to see here but those holes around the back pockets are big enough to easily stick a finger through, and they are becoming thread bare all over. They won't last much longer no matter what I do, but I did add a panel behind the holes so they would see him through a few more weeks of wear.

Not glamorous, but definitely functional. I also had to resew one of the belt loops. It's funny how I will spend hours happily sewing small pieces of fabric together, but the second it is called "mending", it isn't fun anymore.

Last but not least, my Saturday New York Beauty block. Sunday's is cut out and I hope to get it sewn before the day is done.

The sewing room is in need of some tidying up after all this weekend sewing. There are a few threads, scraps, and sewing tools scattered about the room. Time to clean it up so we can start again.