Author: JayeL

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.

Gift Post #1: Apron n.1

SIL #2 Apron
SIL #2 Apron

I made this apron back in September. I couldn’t show it because it was a gift for one of my SILs.

I cut 5 aprons out at Sew Day. You know I love to cut things out on Sew Day. I cut it out in August and thought it would be hard to get them sewn for Christmas. Over Labor Day, instead of making the binding and sleeve for the Aqua-Red Sampler, I finished one of the aprons.

SIL #2 Apron - Cal Side
SIL #2 Apron – Cal Side

I was so pleased that I got one done. One down four to go.

I used the Flapper Apron pattern I bought in Portland with Amanda. I like this bias pattern and the fact that a person can make it with one yard of fabric. I make mine with a yard and a quarter, because a yard and a quarter folds into a square and it is always good to have a little extra. 😉

All of them will be two sided. These fabrics don’t necessarily go together, but it is hard to find something that goes with Cal fabric. I decided to make a two sided apron that had two personalities. When wearing it people won’t really see the other side from the front. Of course, other people will see the other fabric on the ties.

More Juggling Balls

Juggling Ball n.1 - in 3D
Juggling Ball n.1 – in 3D

I finally got one whole juggling ball to the point where I can stuff it close it.

I didn’t use the same method of basting I use with the half hexies. I only basted through the fabric, not through the paper. This was recommended by the All Points Patchwork author, Diane Gilleland. It doesn’t feel as secure to me, but so far so good.

The next step is to remove the papers, turn it inside out and stuff it.

As mentioned, I had to take all of the papers out before I left Portland, because the ball, as shown right, would have certainly been squished. I’d like to use those papers again.

Handwork Week

Heading home
Heading home

As you may have noticed, I have spent a lot of time this week talking about handwork. That’s because I have been doing handwork. I had to drive to Portland (1468 miles there and back) at sort of the last minute to be with the YM while he had a second surgery on his ankle. I’ll spare you the close-up of the stitches and previous scar.

I did a few things while I was there, but no major sightseeing or anything. I spent a lot of time sitting around while he slept and making sure he had enough to eat. I did manage to visit a couple of my favorite quilt stores- one in Portland and one in Ferndale.

Wool felt eggs at Pioneer Quilts - patterns available
Wool felt eggs at Pioneer Quilts – patterns available

I have been to Pioneer Quilts and Stitch before. I was able to visit both because I grabbed the opportunities when they presented themselves. I really like both of those stores. Pioneer Quilts has a wide selection of fabrics, but they also have the biggest selection of wool felt and patterns to go with the wool felt that I ever seen. I don’t need any more handwork projects, but I couldn’t resist these eggs. Aren’t they fantastic?

Most of my gifts were finished and you will see them in the next few days after they are opened. Anything I had planned to do this week, the DH had to take care of: gift purchases, wrapping, shopping for dessert ingredients, tidying, etc. It is kind of nice to sit around. I feel a bit guilty, because I feel like I should be doing something. He did a great job and finished up some of the shopping, etc. yesterday.

I have been listening to books and podcasts while I drive and sit around. I got caught up on the QuiltFiction podcast. I am really appreciative of the sensitive way Frances is handling major themes such as race and independent women. I am seriously behind on other podcasts, because all I seem to do is listen to books. Recently I have finished all the books in a series. The author has several series that are related to the main series, which is really interesting. I am all about character development, so these multiple series, with their overlapping characters give me more of an opportunity to’ engage’ with the characters. I recommend:

  • New York Dead by Stuart Woods – this is the first in the Stone Barrington series. I actually read one in the middle of the series. I thought I would go back and just read the first one, but I ended up reading the entire series. Not every book in the series is great, but they are not too obviously formulaic and are very entertaining. This particular book is very good.
  • Smooth Operator by Stuart Woods
  • The Money Shot by Stuart Woods

None of these are great literature, but if you are looking for escapist entertainment, these are your books.

By the time you read this, I should be home and will have to dive into pie making.

The YM at OHSU, December 2018
The YM at OHSU, December 2018

 

Pentagon Juggling Balls

Juggling Balls in progress
Juggling Balls in progress

I am absurdly pleased with how these halves came out. Some parts of sewing them into a 3D shape were not easy, but not too difficult either.

As mentioned, I used a mini-charm pack so the backs don’t look as tidy as my half hexies do. I don’t care. I am using pretty supplies I have. I also had no time to pick out fabric and cut small pieces, so the mini-charm pack worked well.

New Scarf

“New” is a little bit of an exaggeration. I have been working on it on and off since I was in Sisters. I finally got it right and am much happier with the result.

As is my process, I have already ripped the piece out several times. I finally realized that I didn’t like the weave. I was at my first knitting circle (local shop allows people to come in and free-knit once a week) and I talked to some of the ladies about it. I asked about going down a needle size or two. One said to knit a swatch. Since I don’t usually knit with a pattern, I have never knitted a swatch. I decided to do it with one needle size down. I wasn’t sure what to expect and ended up really liking the result.

Now that I have made some progress, I think this was a good choice. I always use the suggested needle size on the yarn wrapper. It worked okay this time; just not for me.

I also reduced the number of cast-on stitches, which I also think was a good choice. The image above shows the two bits of knitting. The top piece is the first piece I worked on using size 5 needles with 50 stitches cast on. The bottom piece is the piece on which I am working now. I cast on 45 stitches and am using size 4 needles.

Aside from the size, because of the differences in cast on stitches, I don’t see a difference in the weave of the fabric. I noticed that the top piece was much looser (more holes) as I was working on it. Seeing them together makes me wonder if the change was worth the effort.

I am not sure what I was expecting, but it is surprising how well the smaller needles work. I love the small needles.

Pentagon Balls

Pentagon Flowers
Pentagon Flowers

After writing the recent EPP book review, I saw my DH trying to teach my niece to juggle. Since then DH has started to practice juggling again. He used to be able to juggle pins with a friend. He doesn’t have many hobbies, so I am glad he is doing this.

Mini-Charm Pack
Mini-Charm Pack

All Points Patchwork has a pattern/guidelines for EPP balls using pentagon shaped papers. I bought some pentagon papers, grabbed a mini-charm pack and decided to start on some juggling balls for my niece. I plan to put some Beanie Baby pellets inside when I stuff them in order to give them a little weight.

I plan to make a bag for storage. I’d love to have them done by Christmas, but that is a little ambitious. We’ll see.

Paper Wreaths with Friends

Paper Wreaths with friends
Paper Wreaths with friends

I spent a happy evening with friends, catching up and solving the world’s problems. As an added bonus one of them wanted to learn to make paper wreaths. She had found another tutorial (not mine!) and brought paper.

I love making these paper wreaths as they look so impressive. I want to enter another in the fair, but the large one has been entered twice. The judges commented that they had seen it before. Thus, I decided to make a series of small ones. Either I will make a mobile or some kind of wall sculpture. Not sure yet.

It was fun to work with my friends, share paper and tools as well as give them the tips and tricks I have learned.

Testing for Ring Toss

Ring Toss Test Block
Ring Toss Test Block

I have been cutting a little bit for Ring Toss, but it is slow going. The rotary templates are all weird shapes and I need to get into the swing of it. Still, I wanted to test a block to see about highlighting the rings. Thus, I cut a bunch of pieces the other day with the intention of making a block.

I am still thinking about whether to get the booklet. Nobody at the guild seems to have one to loan to me and I am sure I don’t need it for very long. I just want to look at the photos of the border since there are border pieces and I don’t see how they fit into the rest of the quilt.

My first thoughts, after looking at this block for a day or so, is that it is too small. At about 9″, the block is too small. It isn’t that I can’t piece it, I can. It is that the shapes are so great that they are lost in the tiny piecing. Also, the piecing is too fiddly for the number of pieces in the block (17).

At this size, I am not making a whole quilt. I could upsize the block, however. I tried drawing it, had some EQ problems, got help and now have an 18″ block to try. I won’t have the templates, however, for this upsized drawing. I think I will print templates, try one block and see what I think.

Resources:

Various & Sundry 2018 #12

It’s kind of strange that it is December already and 2019 is around the corner. Frankly, I am done with 2018, so this is good news. Still it is strange.

Doing Good

Remember the Girl Scout Hearts I made? The finished quilts are starting to appear and they look great.

My guild is collecting new makeup for high school girls affected by the Camp Fire in Butte County, California. If you have purchased some new makeup, leave a comment with valid email and I will get in touch about getting it to them.

Cindy Needham is collecting tools, solid fabrics (they have enough others) and pre-cuts for quiltmakers who lost everything in the Camp Fire (Northern California, Butte County) and need to get back to sewing. Read through her feed to see what is needed. Rotary cutters, rulers and mats are a big desire.

@lebethbryant has designed a pixelated California quilt. It looks like it is made from charm squares and it is a great design. She is offering this pattern online with 100% of the proceeds going to the California Wildfire Relief Fund. There is a link to purchase the pattern in the profile at the link above.

Patterns, Projects & Tutorials

I have updated the AQ tutorials page here to include the paper wreath tutorial. It is a nice, relatively quick hostess gift.

I saw a link to this older tutorial, The Awesome Bag, and thought it would be easy enough for a quick, last minute gift. I haven’t made it, but I do like the look of it.

Charlotte, of the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady podcast and blog, also has an Etsy shop (and 2 kids, a DH, is a midwife and….WOW!). I was thrilled to see that she has a great dragon pattern for sale. She has a few other things in the shop, but it is not overwhelming and the dragon is the gem.

Northcott posted a free basic apron pattern that would make a great hostess gift or quick raffle prize.

Charlotte Hawkes of Scrapitude fame has a new mystery quilt, A Handy Dandy Scrap quilt. The first cutting instructions are now available.

I am looking for a pattern to keep my KitchenAid stand mixer clean when it is not in use. I found one, but I am not sure about it. Do you have a pattern you like?

I have a very active and important (to me) journal practice. I write every day. I should say that the days I do not write are few and far between. What I do works for me, though I wish I had the time and ideas to make my journals into a piece of art. Still, I am always tempted by other journal projects. I saw the Right Brain Journal project and am tempted. My sister suggested doing it together. One thing I don’t like is that there is no option to purchase a bound version. It is only a digital download.  Digital downloads have their advantages, but I am not sure I want a bunch of sheets of printer paper, not to mention the ink cartridges printing a 70+ page digital download would require. Also, I don’t want to work on printer paper necessarily. Perhaps I could purchase some nice paper that would run through my printer or through the printer at Kinko’s? Are you doing this project?

Media

If you only click through to one link make it this article on the benefits of craft in your life. If your partner or children or neighbor is giving you crap about how many quilts you make, how many quilts are piling up or how much time you spend on quiltmaking, show them the article. The most important thing? Don’t listen to them. Crafting is good for you, good for your mental health. Do it more.

Charlotte, the Slightly Mad Quilt Lady, wrote a great post on sharing photos from shows. There is a bit about copyright, but it is not a piece about copyright.

Anne of PlayCrafts has posted a life update. Aside from being interesting, she has posted some great quilts and quilt WIPs.

Jen Carlton Bailly of BettyCrockerAss.com shows how to use her templates to create a Holly quilt. This is not a tutorial, but it is easy enough to follow the design if you know about piecing.

Modern Quilt Studio is starting a ‘new’ tradition of reflecting on accomplishments for the year. You can read the prompts on Craft Nectar and post your responses on FB or Instagram. I put the ‘new’ in quotes since I have been doing roundup posts for several years. I do them in my own way so they are useful for me.

Behr also has a color of the year. It is different than the Pantone Color of the year, Living Coral.

Tools, Fabric, Supplies & Notions

Sara over at Sew Sweetness introduced her second line of “minikins” recently. I saw a tweet where she wrote “Minikins Season 2 acrylic templates are now in stock! Are you making a lot of the season 2 projects for holiday gifts or craft fairs? These acrylic templates are a huge time saver – use your rotary cutter to quickly cut out your templates”. These seem like a great idea for the small bags included in the second Minikins package.

Honest Fabrics print panels that mimic the pieced quilts of designers such as Anne Sullivan. The colors on the website are beautiful. I haven’t seen one printed out in person. They would be great for someone who enjoys quilting, but not piecing.

I have heard a lot about mini-bolts and wrapping fabric on them for easier storage. I never really investigated the process fully. Recently I came across a page on the Paper Pieces site selling the supplies and explaining how the process works.

Laura Kemshall reviews the Husqvarna Epic. Her work is amazing anyway and the piece she did on this machine is also amazing.

Inspiration

I love the colors and design of the Boulder MQG QuiltCon Charity Quilt. It reminds me a lot of Sarah Goer’s Planned Improv designs.

Laura Kemshall pointed me to a shop and Gallery in Munich. She was invited to display her quilt there. As the shop is local, the site is in German. Click on ‘Kundengalerie’ to see the gallery portion. You can see quilts made by their customers (Kunden!).

Katie, of Katie’s Quilting Corner, posted a link to Tom Hovey the artist who does the food drawings for the Great British Baking Show. I love the drawings. Even though my shelves are overflowing with books, I have been wanting a book of these illustrations. His website is almost as good and includes a section on fruit slices as well. Very inspiring.

Last ATCs

I made my last ATCs for awhile last week and forgot to take a photo. At the CQFA meeting on Saturday, I was the only one who brought them. It was decided that we weren’t going to do them going forward. I will kind of miss the rush of getting a small work of art done, but I will also not miss the stress.

Last CQFA ATCs - December 2018
Last CQFA ATCs – December 2018

Sadly I forgot to take a photo of the 4 together, but Julie brought hers along when we had lunch and I took a photo of one of them.

MetroScape Back

MetroScape back in process
MetroScape back in process

I stole a few minutes from a very busy weekend to sew. I need to finish the MetroScape back and binding before Thursday. I am taking quilts to Colleen to be quilted. She is finally feeling better and able to quilt a bit again, so I can pick up the Stepping Stones #2 as well.

I decided, after I cut up all the dot prints, that I hadn’t used many of the stripes on the front, so I would use them on the back. I spent a lot of Saturday evening recovering the stripes from making the binding. They all of have a big diagonal strip cut off the length.

The binding is finished, which is always a relief. I have enough fabric for the back. I just have to make it work. Right now my issue is what to put in between the three horizontal lines of fabric.

BAM Swap Gift

BAM Winter Extravaganza Gift by Mary
BAM Winter Extravaganza Gift by Mary

I also received a gift at the guild Winter Extravaganza. I was so pleased to get a gift from Mary! She went above and beyond by making me a very cool portfolio, a little basket and a pincushion.

As soon as I opened the package, my mind started whirling about how I would use all of them.

Mary's Little Basket in use
Mary’s Little Basket in use

I have already put the little basket to use as I worked on the back for the MetroScape quilt back. It is now designated for selvedges, though I have already filled it up.

I am thinking that the portfolio will be put to good use for English Paper Piecing fabrics and papers. I use my first Sew Together bag for needles, pins, thread, scissors, etc, but I don’t really have a good place for the papers and the fabrics I have prepared. This might do the trick.

I laughed when I saw the pincushion. As you may remember, I have made this style of pincushion for others in the guild. I never made one for myself, so Mary did it for me!

Spiky 16 Patch n.3

Spiky 16 Patch n.3 for quilt n.3
Spiky 16 Patch n.3 for quilt n.3

I finished another Spiky 16 patch over the weekend, so my collection is growing. I need to start thinking about how I will set these blocks. I could do another quilt like either n.1 or n.2. I am trying to think of something different. Something different might be a small addition like Mrs. K added to her corners.

On point settings are kind of a hassle, but so effective. I have two more blocks to make before I have to decide.

Resources: