pillows, a skirt, and a list

Is it really Wednesday today? I thought for some reason that it was Tuesday.  But Wednesday is a good day.  

My mom is moving into her new house next month and we're all excited for her.  She's been living in an old drafty house for the last bunch of years so this is a big step up for her. She's been busy choosing paint, light fixtures, flooring, curtains - all the fun stuff that comes with a new house.  

I thought her living room pillows needed an update as well, cuz, you know, they just won't match the 'new' anymore.  

So she and I went out to Fabricland last week and she picked out some fabrics for me to play with.  Her living room area is a cream colour with a rusty red/orange accent wall, so these fabrics fit perfectly.  She also didn't want complicated piecing or quilting on the covers, just simple stripes.  

First I did simple vertical stripes. 

Then I tried some angled stripes, but I think I like the vertical better.  I have three more covers to make and about three weeks left to do them in.  

I'll make it.  They'll get done since they're pretty simple and I can finish one up in an evening.

They will all have a hidden zipper closure on the back.  They are so easy to do I wish I had discovered earlier how to do the zipper thing for pillows.  It turns out way nicer than envelope style I think because with envelope style, sometimes the opening can gape just a little and it doesn't look as neat.  I followed this tutorial at Sew Mama Sew.

In the clothing department, I had an order for a skirt to finish up.  Just got it done this morning and I love how it turned out! 

It's the first time I made this pattern and I love it.  I might have to make it a regular in my shop, if there's enough interest.  

The pattern is the Aubrey Skirt from Sadie James Patterns on Etsy.  The only change I made was to the waistband.  Instead of measuring the waist and cutting the elastic for a personalized fit, I made it fully adjustable with buttonhole elastic.  For the rest, the pattern was super easy to follow and it only took me an evening and a morning to make.

For the next skirt though, I might use less than 40" widths worth of fabric as that makes it almost a little too full. 

I was also thinking the other night about what I all want to have finished before this baby comes.  

Ummm, my list is a little bigger than I thought!  Not bigger with stuff, just the stuff on it is big.

Just in case this one is a boy, I wanted to have a boy quilt done.  All I have right now is the fabric on a stack.  

I wanted to have the hexie playmat done, but it is being woefully ignored, for the past few months in fact.  I have a few hexies yet to piece on to the top and then I have to make a little 'quilt' out of it.

I want to have the Hexy MF top all pieced together.  I am almost done that, just have to put two more rows together and the hexy part is done.

And lastly, I wanted to have a toddler sized quilt for D finished so that her 'big' bed might be a little more attractive.  

At the rate I'm going, only the Hexy MF top will get done.  

*sigh*

No matter, I would rather the baby come a little sooner than get done all the things on my list.

Canadian Blogathon!

 

 Hello to all who are here via Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop! 

I'm Deanna and I really still don't consider myself a quilter as I haven't finished one big quilt yet.  Almost, but not quite.

I don't know what to call myself then as I do play around with quilting and paper piecing and all that other quilty stuff.  I started with sewing clothes for my little girl and from there I discovered Flickr and well, that was the end of my 'lone' sewing!  I found so many inspiring quilters and soon became a blog follower and then a blogger.

So welcome to my little space.

It also happens to be Wednesday... but I have no new WIP's, only one big continuing one.

Hexy MF.

My carpet is not kid proof and little D got hold of chalk paint one day... hence the black smudge.

The bigger this top gets, the harder it gets to piece!  It takes up my whole lap and it a little difficult to manage when I have to match up sides without having them pull away.

And I know I said no more swaps until after the baby, but really, I can't not sew something!  And swaps are the perfect opportunity for me to make something I wouldn't normally make, like a mug rug.

This is for the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap - we have to swap a FQ's worth of modern scraps and a handmade item.

I stalked my partner and she had a bunch of mosaics made for other swaps so I think I figured out pretty good what to make for her.  

Now I have been a bit of a negligent blogger lately due to lack of activity and motivation, and that got me thinking about why I blog.  

If you are a blogger, why do you blog?  

I came to the conclusion that I do it for selfish reasons.  I want to have a place where I can occasionally get some feedback about the things I make.

If you are a blog follower, why?  

I follow blogs because I love to see what other people are up to and get new ideas and see styles that are similar but different from my own. 

So, I'm curious, what are your reasons for blogging or following?

in progress

The weather is a little gloomy here right now. We're heading into winter and the temps are dropping.  We've also had rain here the last few days, so all I feel like doing is lounging around in my pajamas and hand sewing hexies together.
And I have been doing a bit of that among other things, just not enough of it in my opinion.

I am busy in two swaps that come up the end of October and middle of November, so I do have things to make, just not much motivation yet.  It'll come, right?

This is what I'm putting together for the Pillow Talk {Swap}.  My partner is pretty silent, and her wish list was not very specific, so I'm mostly working off her mosaic and the comments of others.



That one hexy is 6" high and there will be another above and below it.  Just deciding now whether to go with the aqua dots, the yellow dots, or one of each.  So far the Flickr consensus is the aqua dots.  I may be leaning in that direction now too.

The second swap is Modernista Homemade.  My partner here was pretty specific and is not super silent.  This is both good and bad though because now I don't dare to post any sneak peeks!



This is what I will be working with for her though.  Don't tell, kay?

I only have the prints cut up, and have yet to tackle the linen.  

A question for you.  

Do you prewash your fabrics?  

I prewash if I plan to make clothes from the fabric, but not if I am going to be making a quilt or a mini or so.  Should I be prewashing everything?

Finishing Up

My husband kindly reminded me last night that it was going to be Wednesday today.  

Seriously, and it sound bad, but I really do always seem to forget when Wednesday is.  Anyone else have that?

I finally finished this mini quilt.  I love this front much better than last time, and with the black binding, I think it looks very polished.  The swap is a 'modern' swap, and I think this fits the bill.

Now, I am and hurrying to finish the quiet book.

To be honest, I am getting a little tired of this book.  So much work!  So far, though, D likes it.

I made some mail for the mailbox.

I printed off pictures of the grandparents and parents of fabric and put us in a house with flaps for windows.  This is D's fave page so far!

I needed one more idea, to fill a page and though, hey, she likes animals, so I made a zoo. Again printing animals on fabric and putting them under flaps.  The carrots and flowers were ideas I had seen on the internet. The flowers are made using this tutorial and they snap on.

 The elephant behind the curtains!

I added some stamps and a sun to the barn page.

The zipper page needed something, so I added hair elastics and buttons.  We'll see how that works yet.

ETA

It's done!  I finished the quiet book today!  that makes me happy.  

Working Along

 

It's that day of the week again! 

Last week I showed you all my mini quilt for my For the Love of Solids swap partner.  

I had the top and back all pieced and was debating what sort of quilting I was going to do.  

I went with some quilting that I really loved on the back, but not so much on the front.  Somehow, it was too busy and the quilting distracted from the simple lines of the design.  

I could always say the back is the front and the front the back, but I wasn't satisfied with that either.

So, as any perfectionist would do, I started all over.  

Now I have this little quilt and I love it much more than the other.  Granted, the back is pretty boring now, only white with black lines quilted onto it, but hey, it's the front that counts!

Binding is sewn on, ready to be hand sewn onto the front.

These simple lines look so much better to me.  

Also a W.I.P for me is making some boys button up shirts for the shop!  I have some fabric and some ideas which may or may not include stenciling and cars, and I am almost ready to go!  

Sure hope I have a cute little shirt to show you next week!

I'm a Keener!

So yesterday I posted this project as a W.I.P and now I am nearing completion! 

I seem to always do that.  Start something and then really go at it till it is done without doing much else in between.  

Oh, well, here is the update on my solids swap item.

Front of mini quilt.

Back of mini quilt.

Now I have to get on to the business of quilting and binding.

  

I have never ever made a mini quilt before and I have very limited experience in quilting techniques, so this will be simple straight line quilting.  The binding I will most likely do by machine and hand to keep it neat since I am terrible at machine binding.  

Any tips on quilting?  Lots of pins?  I'm just a little nervous!

It's Wednesday

Yesterday was a home day. 

Me and D stayed home since the previous three days were spent outside the house.  

Saturday at the mall.

Sunday is almost always a day away.

Monday at the hospital waiting and waiting and waiting.

Since it was a home day, I thought it high time I made D the dolly blanket I promised her. 

(Not that she would remember, but you know, it's the principle behind it.)

I kept it simple and just used a fq I had in my stash and cut a fq of minky for the back.  

Easy peasy and we both love it.

Snuggling dolly... and yes, that's my scrap corner back there.

Perfect match!  The cats were perfect for this project.

In bed.

Now on to some WIPs.

Yup. I actually have some! 

Well, the first one is ongoing.  It will be very long term I think, but that is okay.  

I did do some work on it though.  I stitched together 4 of the 'flowers' so it is starting to look and feel like something other than scrappy hexies.  Progress is good.

I also received in the mail to day the scraps from Eva-Marie across the ocean in Holland! 

Yay! More hexie fodder!

My real WIP is this baby.  My project for my swap partner in For the Love of Solids.  I also just got the last few fabrics in the mail today, so I will keep cutting and begin sewing!  Maybe next week I will have something at least half finished to show.

I'm loving these colours and sure hope it looks good all together!

Wednesday W.I.P.

***  If you are looking for giveaways, I have three going now!  Two for Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day, here and here, and one for follower appreciation.  So if you are a follower, enter that one! 

They are all open until Friday.  ***

It's Wednesday again. Yup. I know it for sure this time. 

I think.

I have another project on the go.  I just started yesterday night, but as I may have mentioned before, I am not one who should start sewing after 9pm.  Things just all go wrong if I even start.  I finished cutting the fabric by 9:30 and was lucky I didn't screw that up.  Ha!

Anyway, this is for a friend.  She asked for a bag for her sister and she picked on off the internet that she liked and I remembered a pattern that looked almost identical to the bag she picked.

So I am making the Wasp Bag. If you want, you can make it too since it is a free pattern and tutorial.  You can find it here at machen/machen.

 

My friend said her sister liked blue, so I used this pretty fabric I picked up from Ikea a while back. 

Yes, it is the same I used for my ironing board.  I like looking at my ironing board so much I thought it would look okay as a bag too.
The interior fabric is Caitlyn Stripe by Alexander Henry.  I picked that up from Drygoods Design, which is having their last day of 40% off everything!  Seriously, 40% off.  I went shopping.

I am going to go now and get to some sewing on this bag since little D is now napping.