Pillow Talk 6 Swap

After sitting out a few rounds of some very fun swaps this summer, I’m excited to be participating in the latest round of The Pillow Talk 6 Swap over on flickr. This is a seriously talented bunch of sewers. Every time I go through the photo stream I find something new and creative to gush over.  Here’s what I’ve picked to give my partner an idea of my style and the colors that I’m loving right now…. which are mostly rainbow. My partner has lovely taste and tons of pictures for me to peruse to get a better idea of what makes her swoon. I can’t wait to start pulling some fabric inspiration piles!

I recently scored the most fabulous vintage couch from a friend leaving Portland to go on to bigger adventures. I’ve also replaced some of the older furniture with bright pretty high functioning pieces. It’s in great shape, only a few cushions have wear marks. I love the fabric so much. Its actually a little lighter than the picture. Such Pretty shades of coral and ivory As a side note, if you have any recommendations about cleaning upholstery/slipcovers I’d love some reccomendations. This is where my pillow will be living.  If you’re interested I highly encourage you to check out the flickr swaps! You’ll meet some amazingly inspiring people in the process.

Luna

I’ve been a bad blogger again! I kept meaning to post but one thing lead to another and well, you know how it goes. Ben’s been working nonstop and I think he’s only had about 5 or 6 days off all summer (even then he’s had about 4-5 hours of work each of those days). That’s hard but hopefully there is some change on the horizon that would mean more time off for both of us. We had to say goodbye to our beloved cat Snooper. That was really hard. She’d been my constant shadow for almost 15 years. I was so sad to lose her and surprised at some of the memories and sadness her death brought up for me. Some of the more painful traumas of my life happened during high school when my family split into a million little pieces. It felt like my childhood died and I mourned for Snooper and all those things from so long ago. But life goes on and we’ve added a new member to our flock. Meet Luna, out little boston terrier puppy. Our other cat, Penny, wasn’t adjusting to being an only pet nor was she a fan of all of Willow’s attention. We’d been wanting a puppy for a little while. You might be asking yourself, “Ale, are you insane? A puppy and a toddler?” Well the answer is yes and no. Yes, I have to be crazy vigilant and I literally can’t let them out of my eyesight. BUT! They love each other, they’re bonding really well and I figure our house is totally kid proofed right now. So there’s not much for a puppy to destroy that the baby hasn’t already gotten to (hahaha aww I made myself sad). She’s getting wayyyyy better in the potty trained dept. And seriously when you’re changing diapers all day, what’s a little more poop? Better to get it all out of the way now I think! Soon I’ll live in a house where everyone’s responsible for their own bowel movements. Never thought I’d be excited for a day like that! Beyond that life goes on. I finished my pinwheel quilt for us and I love it. Pictures soon.  I’ll be back later tomorrow with some newly finished quilting projects!

Pinwheels & postage Stamps pt.1

I finally finished half of this massive project. Here’s the first of two quilts that I’ve named Pinwheels & Postage Stamps. But when you say it, you should really sing it to the tune of this song….

Ok, are you sufficiently perked up? Great! Let’s talk about quilts!  These are half square triangles turned pinwheels using Kona Ivory and the entire collection of Folksy Flannels (from my favorite Anna Maria Horner). I also purchased two spectrum bundles of solids from her shop, so those are mixed in to highlight the prints.  It is sashed with a soft linen/cotton blend and bound in Farmdale Crosshatch in sage. The backing is also the folksy flannel.

I really couldn’t be more pleased with the way that this turned out. In order to keep this as soft and cuddly as possible, I opted for a very light quilting style. I quilted a meandering spiral/paisley pattern into each individual white sash. I  used coordinating sashiko threads, pearle cottons and embroidery flosses to hand quilt running stitches around random pinwheels.

I think this style makes the colors pop even more! Which in my mind, is never a bad thing:)

This is the first real project I’ve worked on with my new Bernina 440 QE.  I’ve only had it for about a 1.5 months but it has totally changed the way I sew. I was sewing on an awesome old 1950 Singer Slant-o-matic. Amazing to learn on, but after finishing 8 quilts (piecing and quilting!) and a ton of little side projects I was sewing at least an hour daily. I started researching several months ago and after much consideration, I marched myself down to Modern Domestic over on Alberta Street. They are so awesome, couldn’t be more thrilled with the amazing customer service and support I’ve already received from Lupine, Meredith and the other lovely ladies of MD. I chose the 440 QE specifically because the BSR or Bernina Stitch Regulator, was included in the package. It’s a pretty amazing foot, with an equally amazing price tag. It took some getting used to, and it meant working slower than I usually do, but I love it! My stitch length was consistent throughout the entire quilt.  Le sigh. It makes me so happy to see such a huge improvement in the quality of my sewing on a new and versatile machine, so encouraging!

I also recently purchased an Accuquilt Go! Cutter to help me me power through the eight (and counting?!!!) quilts that I’ve been commissioned to do. I’m hoping this investment will help my turn around time, as well as freeing me up to work on

inventory for an etsy shop in the works.  I never would have guessed when I decided to leave the kitchen that I’d find a small means of employment with this hobby. It is such a welcome, sanity saving outlet for me to creatively function beyond the role of Mom. My former inner work-a-holic has not had the easiest transition from 45-60 hr work weeks to SAHM. Almost 15 months in and it feels like we are confidently comfortable in our families new normal. This little smile is just the icing on the cake:) Have a wonderful week. I’ll be back with some picture heavy posts of pretty fabric stacks and a sinful chocolate chip cheesecake bar recipe.   

 

Fabric linky-loo!!!

I like fabric. A lot. This is just a part of my stash, some favorites and piles that just seem like they belong together. I’ve been getting a lot of inquires as to where I buy my fabrics lately so I thought I would take a few moments to talk about my favorites sources.

How I buy fabric.

I buy fabric to use immediately sometimes (mostly solids) but the majority of my fabric is bought with Stash Building in mind. Rather than having to rely on using single fabric collections it allows you to mix and match. I buy fabrics that function as bold centerpieces with lots of visual interest and basics like polka dots, stripes,squares and solids that can function as background players. When I get a commission for a quilt or just plain inspired, I pull piles from my stash and come up parings I might never have considered, had I been buying it all at once.  I bought a Kona Color Card. It’s a great investment if you want to buy lots of fabrics online, or if you want to find the perfect match for a print and order a coordinating solid. Kona has 221 solid shades!! Awesome!!  Most designer print fabrics are only available for a limited time. They are released during the Fall or Spring Quilt (fabric) Market and are (generally) only available while stock lasts. They then become out of print, and then hard to find (or in fabric obsessive collector terms OOP’s and HTF’s). I didn’t know this when I first started buying fabric and quickly learned that the beautiful fabrics I had gotten attached to had tripled in cost over the course of a year. Now, when I find prints I love I buy several yards, to avoid hoarding it forever and actually use it. It might be a sickness!

If you’re interested in learning more about this process, I would highly recommend jumping over to Jeni’s blog In Color Order, to check out her “The Art of Choosing” series. Great advice, prettier pictures and her pet rabbit George makes frequent appearances!

I would say that my fabric purchases are about 70% local quilt shop purchases and about 30% online.  Most of what my LQS’s (local quilt shops) sell is readily available online, but I like to support local businesses where and when I can.  If you love fabric I would highly recommend checking out True Up. The site is packed with information about new fabrics as they are released, designers and tons of pictures. They also put out an excellent roundup of online sites having fabric sales every Friday, saved me quite bit of money! I subscribe in my reader and always get excited to see what new releases they’re previewing.

Some good resources to see what’s available and fabric lines (past & present) in their entirety is by checking said companies site. Here are some of the biggies,
Free Spirit Fabrics
Moda Fabrics
Robert Kaufman
Amy Butler Fabrics
Riley Blake Designs
Cosmo Cricket
Seven Islands Fabric
Michael Miller Fabrics
Alexander Henry Fabrics

Once you’ve looked around & found some designers/prints you like, this is where I tend to buy from when online shopping. I would highly recommend searching for a Local Quilt Shop, its nice to support the small carefully culled shops and sometimes pictures just don’t do fabrics justice. Plus they’ve usually got great recommendations and loads of insight. Just don’t be shy, they love to talk fabric! Some of my all time favorites photograph terribly not matter the lighting. They lose something in the translation. Anyone else ever notice that? So without further ado, a list of reputabale shops. Fellow PMQGer’s/quilters feel free to add shops in the comments and I’ll add to the list as they come.

Fabric.com
Fat Quarter Shop
Fabricworm
Hawthorne Threads
Above All Fabrics
The Fabric Shoppe
Fresh Squeezed Fabric
Sew Mama Sew (also check out their blog!)
Fabric Shack super cheap Kona and nice variety of prints
Quilthome
Super Buzzy For all things Japanese craft. Love this site.
Harts Fabrics
Spoonflower print on demand fabric and a wealth of independent designs
Nido Fabric and Yarn
Purl Soho great blog, amazing selection
Alewives Fabrics
Pink Chalk Fabrics

 

When searching for older collections or prints my first stop is usually Etsy (or ebay if I’m desperate). If you search under supplies there is a ton of HTF and OOP fabric as well as tons of current prints. I comp shop the sellers on etsy.com frequently, especially with OOP as there are some people who artificially inflate the prices of older collections (so not cool!). Make sure you check any shops feedback before you purchase and comp shop the prices if you can. I try to find the lowest shipping or closest seller (to meagerly reduce me carbon footprint) I find that these formulas yeild the most consistent results for harder to find prints:

fabric designers name + name of the fabric line

fabric line + specific print name

specific print + fabric designers name

print name + colorway

That might seem a little silly, but if at first I don’t find what I’m looking for I try searching like that and I rarely turn up empty handed. I’m rather OCD awesome at finding things. Let me assure you much thought has been put into the best way to save money and search for fabrics…so the money I save can buy more fabric:) Sorry Ben, thank you for loving me in spite of my cotton weakness!

You can also try swapping fabric with other sewers on sites like flickr.com! Search the groups for fabric swaps, fabric destashing, modern swapping. So much fun!

Here is my short list of some favorite designers. Almost every single one has a regularly updated blog:

Anna Maria Horner, Denyse Schmidt, Erin McMorris, Heather Bailey, Amy Butler, Melody Miller, Liberty of London, Heather Ross, Tula Pink, David Walker, Liesel Gibbons, Monica Solorio-Snow (PMQG!!), Violet Craft (PMQG!!), Aneela Hoey, Urban Chicks, Cosmo Cricket, Riley Blake, Valori Wells, Lizzy House, Kate Spain, Etsuko Furuya Echino, Joel Dewberry, Jay McCarroll, Momo, Alexander Henry, Wendy Slotboom, Sandi Henderson, American Jane

I hope that this list helps and I hope that if you’ve got a excellent source that you’ll share in the comments. I’ve got a list of notions/hardware links I’m working on now so send those my way too, if you’ve got them! If you have any further questions or want to know where I got that one that time, drop me a line. I do my best to reply to them all!

~Alexandra

Pinwheels & Postage Stamps

I’ve been meaning to make my mom something ever since I picked up quilting. She has always been a wonderful supporter of my art and I’ve been searching for just the right fabrics and patterns to make her something special. I thought I’d settled on them a while back. Them being the Dream On collection by Moda- a delightfully modernized collection of vintage sheet prints. I started cutting and sewing but somehow nothing came together like the image in my head and I was really frustrated.

I recently reorganzied my entire sewing room to make room for a new sewing machine   (that gets its own  post!!) and to make better working use of the space available to me.  I reorganized all of my fabric and in doing so, came across my sizable stash of Anna Maria Horner’s Folksy Flannels. Somehow, those pretties never quite made it back to the shelf. I had enough to make two quilt tops, one for me and one for my mom. Something to make us feel a little brighter and closer together while there are 3,100 miles between us.

This is the first top, it is also getting rows of light linen sashing on each side. I’m not sure how I want to quilt this yet. I plan on doing a few rows of running stitches by hand in the linen sashing. This is going to be the first thing I quilt on the Bernina 440QE (yep! thats what I got and I LOVE it). I’m excited to make the BSR earn its price tag. Any ideas on quilting style? I’d love your thoughts because I’m a bit stumped on how to finish it.

I’m going to try to work these leftovers into the backs somehow, or maybe just make some pillow shams?There are definitely too many to not do something with them. I guess it’ll all depend on how motivated I feel during tonights late night sewing session:)

Back tomorrow with more projects to share, I’ve been working non stop and I’ve got a huge stack of finished stuff to show!

Willow’s Spring Garden

I knew that I shouldn’t take on yet another project, but I couldn’t help myself. I just had to make my little stinky a quilt for her very first birthday.  At first I was thinking of something pieced and intricate. I made a stack of beautiful fabrics and as they sat there on my desk, I threw my plan out the window.  I wanted something a little larger than a crib size but smaller than a twin. I ended up with a perfect couch sized lap blanket.

While the baby napped, I took a large cut of incredibly soft linen and a washable marker and started “sketching”. I  drew two wavy lines and from there started filling in the spaces with flowers, circles and hearts.  I wanted this to be reminiscent of spring, slightly wild and imperfect, like plants waking after months of lazy slumber. I also didn’t want to spend an eternity on this one, so I went with reverse applique to fill in all the shapes. I’m a huge fan of the reverse applique look. Its fun, modern and a little more relaxed than traditional hand turned applique (which I have neither the time nor patience for). I just got an awesome new free-motion foot for my Singer that is so far and above better than my old one its not even funny. Using that helped me get the appliques finished in less than half of the time it took with my special purpose foot.

I used several different techniques when it came time to actually quilt this little gem. I found myself thinking (longing) for my moms garden while I made this. In Maryland, the weather will be easing up soon and the lilacs, wisteria and cherry trees will begin to burst with color and the hopeful unkempt look that signifies a new season on the farm. I found myself thinking of the millions of little wildflowers that grow in the pastures, of hedges desperate for haircuts.  I tried to work in those little memories to ease my longing for home (but mostly just my mommy).

In the outer “fields” I free motioned flowing organic lines interspersed with little “wildflowers” ( free motioned, to give them a sketchy look, fighting my impulse to make everything perfectly matchy). Then, since a garden isn’t really a garden without hedges, I added rows on either side of pebble quilting. I really like the look of pebble quilting, but hot damn does it take a ton of thread. Just these two rows used a spool and a half!! Inside my “flower bed” I used a really teeny tiny stipple and some echo quilting on some of the larger flowers to anchor them really well to the backing.

I went with a lovely shade of Kona cotton for the binding ( I think this is turquoise, I’d go check but there is currently a baby asleep on my lap and a cat on my feet!) I really like the way it rounds the whole thing out while giving it just the right amount of pop.

I’m a big fan of pieced backs and I’ve never made a quilt with a completely solid backing. Until now that is! I used one of my all time favorite fabrics. It was a little hard to use this much of it at once, but I’m so very happy that I did. Its a reproduction print by Timeless Treasures and not the fanciest or most expensive fabric in my collection by any means. But, never-the-less, I just adore it. My favorite shade of green with a lovely little coral and purple flowers.  It almost has a Flea Market Fancy vibe to it, can you see it? I fully intend to pair them together again at some point, once I’ve hoarded collected more. I’m happy to report that the munchkin loves this one… almost as much as I do!! Now I should really get back to my single girl…. hoping to find motivation to keep working on that this week.

April Flowers & New Leaves

I’m already swamped with projects. I have 4 quilts I “owe” people, not to mention the three I’m working on for us. So by all accounts, I shouldn’t start anything new. But I did….oops. This idea has been churning around in my brain for the past few days, finally this afternoon I caved, pulled this stack of fabric and started cutting. They will be paired with a really lovely light colored linen and some really fun funky reverse applique. I’m pretty excited to share this one once I get a little further along. This was born out of my desire for summer and my feeble attempts to make the dark gray skies of late a little brighter! Did I mention I joined two new swaps and a new quilt bee?? OOPS!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of sewing with my fellow Portland Modern Quilt Guild ladies for a blissful 8 hours. Big thanks to my amazing husband for taking a day off, watching the baby and having my favorites from Screen Door waiting for me when I got home for dinner. I spent most of the time chatting with Jen of Quiddity Quilts, Kristen of Kmac Quilts and Brittany (I don’t think she blogs) and a few others. Thanks ladies for the delightful chatter, grownup conversation is amazing! I can’t wait til the next sew-in!!

That was the longest I’ve been away from the baby in a year! It also made it clear to me, that I need to allow myself more adult time. Its been hard being away from our families this first year, no anytime all the time free babysitter (aka her grandparents). Not that we don’t have awesome supportive friends willing to shower the baby with love for a few hours, but I can’t in good conscience leave her knowing how bad the separation anxiety is (was). We seem to finally be getting over that. Her cognitive development is running 4-7 months ahead of her age… while that is excellent news it also means that we’ve jumped back to back into some really high maintenance phases. I’m optimistic though, it’ll be great once the weather lets up some and we can spend more time outside. What about you, are you ready for this (seemingly) eternal winter to be moving on?

Neither night,nor sleep

I have a bunch of other things that I should be working on. But I just want to stitch on this. The suction cups were pretty slow going at first ( that’s a lot of satin stitching!!) But I’ve got nearly all the big ones finished, the smaller ones are much easier with less floss and a teeny tiny needle. This isn’t even close to halfway done, but I thought I’d share my progress so far!! 

Satin stitch closeup. If your interested in embroidery, I highly recommend that you check out this website Rocksea and Sarah. It is an amazingly detailed free reference and one that has helped me immensely (as I’m a self taught). You can grab this free pattern here Corvus Tristis.

This reminds me of a passage from a favorite Neruda poem (Night on the Island)

“Ni la noche, ni el sueño
pudieron separarnos.
He dormido contigo
y al despertar, tu boca,
salida de tu sueño,
me dio el sabor de tierra,
de agua marina, de algas,
del fondo de tu vida,
y recibí tu beso
mojado por la aurora
como si me llegara
del mar que nos rodea.”

 

“Neither night nor sleep
could separate us.
I have slept with you
and on waking, your mouth,
come from your dream,
gave me the taste of earth,
of sea water, of seaweed,
of the depths of your life,
and I received your kiss
moistened by the dawn
as if it came to me
from the sea that surrounds us.”

Regrouping

I’m in standing starkly in the middle of my current project. The exact point where you’ve already sunk a good 30 hours of work in, although the proof seems to be missing. It’s that perfect spot where, no matter how fast you work, the finished pile seems to stay the same size, while to-be-done seems to be multiplying every time you blink.  For me I find that this point is critical. Either I push on through sheer stubbornness or the project falls by wayside littering my closets for months, sometimes longer.

My new goal to combat these rouge sewing projects? I’m going to allow myself to step away and work on a 1-3 hour side project. A little something for me, since 95% of the things I create are for other people, I’m going to reward myself in the middle with little pretties. I’ll fearlessly cut into prized fabrics that have been sitting around in my stash instead of worrying that the project won’t be good enough to justify using fabric x. Some of my favorite fabrics sometimes get skipped over just because I don’t want to “waste” them. Meanwhile, I find myself regretting leaving them out of other projects that would have gone from good to great with one or two different fabric pulls. So last night in the midst of tracing even more single girl stuff, I cleared my desk and made myself one of these!

A needle book for my countless embroidery projects! I needed something nice and organized that would also keep said necessary items out of the babies clutches. I used some Flea Market Fancy Orange Seeds and Fancy Posies in Pink. Some Far Far Away 2 and linen binding. The coral colored solid is from an Anna Maria Horner Solid Spectrum bundle. I used a great tutorial that I found over here, Sew She Sews.

I added two additional pages with the intention of keeping all of my hand sewing needles in this case. Maybe I’ll finally be able to find the right needles when I actually need them! I quilted it  in free flowing organic lines and bound it in linen. It makes me feel happy and relaxed all at once.

I just love the Flea Market and FFA2 together. I don’t know why I waited so long to make myself something with these fabrics. The rest of my stash is in very serious danger of some bold cuts very soon!

I walked away reinvigorated just by finishing something. Tomorrow I am turning twenty seven. Willow will be one in twelve days. This birthday actually feels like a significant mark in time instead of an arbitrary birthday attached to some number, some cluster of years.

I’m standing here, shocked that I made it though my first year of staying at home (a huge, difficult change for me. HUGE), that my daughter has grown (6 lbs. 11 oz.) and flourished (20 lbs. 9 oz.). I feel like a phoenix rising from the ashes of my former self. Last year, I finished culinary school (6 months pregnant) with a 4.0 GPA.  I got married, I had a baby. The wild single girl of my former days has been replaced with this girl I’m still getting comfortable with. The complete life adjustment is harder than the physical birthing, though that wasn’t a stroll in the park either.

This year has been a manic ride of highs, lows and (holy shit!!) hormones like whoa. But no matter how desperate and hopeless I felt at times, I’m still here and the fog lifted. I’m excited, I’m looking forward to the developments ahead and the little life that is unfurling as we become a family together. My oldest dearest friend is moving across the country, to start fresh and getting to share my daughter with her is such a gift. I know she’ll cherish her almost as much as I do. Twenty six, thank you for showing me strength I wasn’t aware of. Thanks for forcing me to grow. Twenty seven, I hope you’re more inclined to hang out and sip lemonade all day, otherwise I can’t promise your glass won’t have some whiskey in it.

Things are looking promising.

Urban Home Goods Swap

I’m pleased to have (finally) finished my wares for my partner in the Urban Home Goods 3 Swap. This might be the most fun I’ve ever had in a swap, certainly one of the most inspiring groups on flickr right now.  Well, Chris received her package from me last week and I was pleasantly surprised to find a package waiting for me on my doorstep this morning! Moda was my first favorite “designer fabric house”. While I’ve since found a few new favorites, there are several Moda collections I just can’t get enough of. Dream On by Urban Chicks is definitely one of them! I love its throwback retro feel, without any fading or weird attic smells that plague most vintage linens. The colors are the best of vintage sheet variety, though (thankfully) lacking in some of the more avocado like hues that were so popular in the 60′s & 70′s.

The table runner is making my whole kitchen/dining area so happy. While I can’t bring myself to use such pretty items in my (hardworking) kitchen, the lovely little trivets have already found a home on my desk in the sewing room. So don’t worry, they’ll get plenty of use in there! I couldn’t get very good pictures of the crafts(woman)ship but the stitching is all perfect and consistent. A lot of skill went into these lovelies, something I appreciate almost as much as the items themselves. I really couldn’t be more thrilled with what Jennifer made me, thanks again for your thoughtful gift!

For my partner, I chose to make a reversible sewing machine cover and a thread-catcher pin cushion. Some new wares to freshen up her sewing area. Using my single girl test block, I  echo quilted the block to anchor it to a layer of batting.  The other side is a patchy combination of linen, some fabrics from the Hope Valley, Farmdale and other favorite lines. I even worked in some repurposed doilies and embroidery. I didn’t follow a pattern, just sorta made it up as I went along. Here are a few photos:

And here is the thread catcher and pincushion combo. I made this using an Oh! Franson tutorial on Sew Mama Sew. Want one to spruce up your sewing space? They’re easy to make!

Thanks again to all the lovely ladies that organized this swap. They are a continual source of fun and inspiration and I can’t wait for round four!