Union Jack Paper Pieced Block

April 25, 2013 in April May's Sampler, Life | 2 comments

I finally made the Union Jack block for my Sampler quilt.

Thank you to each person who gave me input on fabric selection.

There was an overwhelming response for this combination.

Which I was about to cut into when I realized I forgot one crucial piece of information: the overall look of the quilt. And I don’t think that that lovely blue as the main color in a block would have gone with my bright, Springy look.

So I went with the second-most-popular combination, and made this.

I love it. Though I keep wishing I had the time to make it in the darker blue, as well.

It took over four hours to make. This is my second attempt at paper piecing and I made the pattern and created instructions myself. Which is a feat considering I had only paper pieced once before! I am still amazed that it worked out.

Being a purist, I had to make my block to exact Union Jack dimensions. So the block won’t fill an entire square in the sampler quilt. I think I already shared that I plan to applique hearts with this fabric on a strip of fabric underneath the flag.

I’ve been unreasonably busy lately but am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I sadly quit one of my three part-time jobs. It was a job that I enjoyed but that had the fewest hours, so made most economic sense to quit. Now I am just working at Macy’s on nights and weekends and for grkids.com during the day. I also am wrapping up my commitments on the leadership team for my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. That was time intensive! Wow. Man, I’m on a roll! Let’s see, what else can I quit? … watching my children a couple of days a week? Oh, wishes…

That said, I hope to be sewing more again, and also have time to blog about said sewing. I have a lot of projects to get working on, but in true April fashion, none of them are easy to do.

One project is to make Izzy a throw quilt like Olivia’s, only with her favorite character, Babar, King of the Elephants, on it. They don’t make a fabric panel with Babar. So I have to create one. Or applique an entire elephant. Doh!!

Tags: quilt block, Riley Blake, Sampler, Union Jack

Factory Cart Coffee Table with Storage

March 8, 2013 in Home Improvement, Things I've Not Made | 1 comment

Last fall my husband was inspired by cool coffee table that famed do-it-yourselfer Ana White had made.

Our old coffee table had fallen apart and we needed something sturdy, affordable, and attractive for our busy living room. This was just the piece:

I also love the bright, colorful pillows, the nice couch (this was right after my dead-mouse-in-the-couch incident), the ample sunlight streaming in the room, and the cheerful blue end table. But one thing at a time here.

Of course, we can never do things the easy way around here. So JB completely redrafted Ana’s plans in order to create a coffee table that worked with our space and needs.

He added wheels that were more functional: two of them pivot and have brakes that provide easier movement and that lock in place.

They’re not as sexy as the vintage ones on Ana’s table, but sometimes you gotta go with function over fashion. (And price!)

He also added a bottom to the table, compartmentalized the inside, and added hinged lids so that the table could double as a storage space.

Do you spy the Wicked Witch there? I’m excited about the new Wizard of Oz movie. And I’m a purist. I would usually say “don’t mess with Oz,” but in this case they did a thoughtful rendering, I think. Haven’t seen it yet, though. It was filmed here in Michigan, so there’s THAT.

Yeah, it’s a blurry shot. But no time to go back for retakes now!

JB had originally picked a stain called Gunstock, which turned out really red! The stain swatch had very little red in it. Boo. He bought another color (can’t recall the name) and put that stain over top the Gunstock and that evened it out quite a bit more.

He even made a removable tray for our remotes and coasters.

I am so pleased with my coffee table. JB had been working on it last November and December and I was pleasantly surprised when he brought up the finished piece on Christmas Eve. It worked really well for wrapping presents on it.

Tags: casters, coffee table, do it yourself, handmade, hinges, husband, storage

Goodbye, Dead Mouse Couch!

March 1, 2013 in Home Improvement | 3 comments

I got a new couch.

My first ever, “bought it in a store with my own money” kind.

Our old couch had served us well. It was a relic that had been brown in a previous life and then transformed into a blue and white striped beauty that I loved for several years.

Then it got saggy. The zipper broke on one of the cushions. We painted the walls a periwinkle color that did not complement the couch. My delightful 4-year-old peed on it several times during potty training. My dog had also marked it herself, for no good reason other than that she’s a petulant, frantic creature given to her own idiotic desires.

And then, a mouse lived in it. During regular couch business hours. And then,

that mouse died in it.

I was ready to throw the couch to the curb with the dead mouse still in there but my in-laws talked me out of that one by removing the mouse and stapling the upholstry back. I allowed the couch to remain in my living room with the understanding that a new one was on its way. Just as soon as I could save up enough Macy’s employee award money and coupons to get it for a good deal.

I picked a piece from Martha Stewart’s Saybridge collection. Totally vintage and totally me. I dreamed about my new red couch as I watched the Dowager Countess and Lady Grantham sit on the stunning red couches in Downton Abbey. Yep, I had picked wisely.

I read as many reviews as I could find, etc., since I would be ordering this couch sight-unseen. Sadly, Martha’s kitchenware does not have great longevity so I was wary of her furniture offerings. The reviews were all positive so I decided to go for it.

I LOVED the Storm (deep gray) color but knew it wouldn’t go with my decor. So I decided on Berry, which looked like this online:

I couldn’t tell if the red was the right tone, but I went for it. And got this:

Oh, yeah! (The lighting is funky here but trust me, it’s a gorgeous red.)

It totally transformed my living room. Well, that and the new coffee table that JB made. More on that in another post.

Again, I know that the lighting is bad. I feel like my camera is off for some reason. But it’s probably just me.

The couch retailed at $1,500. I could have had it delivered to my house for $300, as the closest Macy’s furniture store was in Flint, over 100 miles from my house. For $86 though, I was able to have it delivered to my sister’s house in St. John’s. About halfway between here and Flint. After shipping and the warranty, etc., I paid less than $600 for it.

It’s quite comfortable. I like the high arms. The vintage look. The deep seats.

I used to not really enjoy my living room. The couch was saggy and didn’t match anything and the room just felt kind of big and empty (even though it is full of furniture!). I feel like this new couch pulls all the other pieces together and provides a nice eye-catching anchor for the room.

It has taken me nearly six weeks to properly photograph this couch and it still isn’t where I want it. Previously, when the lighting was good, I had interference. I trained Lucy at a young age to model for the camera. I failed to teach her that she is only required to model when I ask. Not whenever the camera is around.I have dozens of shots with her in it somewhere. Oh, Lou!

I am so thankful that we were able to afford such a beautiful new piece of furniture.

Vote! Union Jack fabric selection

February 13, 2013 in April May's Sampler, Fabric | 11 comments

I’m back to working on my Sampler quilt, and my latest block is going to a a paper-pieced version of the Union Jack flag.

I knew this fabric wouldn’t work within the flag but want to use it to fill out the block underneath, since my “hole” in the quilt for the block is square and the Union Jack isn’t. I think I’ll applique hearts with this fabric underneath the finished flag.

I love all things Great Britain, especially Cath Kidston, and wanted to make something with Cath flair. I pulled this darling pink print and wanted to use it for the red parts of the flag.

And then I got stumped. I pulled out all my possible blue fabrics.

And none of them were cutting the mustard. I went to my favorite quilt shop, Smith Owen, where I had a $25 gift card. And found these:

But was still undecided. Until I remembered this print, which I had also picked up there. If this isn’t Cath Kidston esque, I don’t know what is!

But it doesn’t really seem to POP with the pink print.

I then dug out this fabulous polkadot print that my Granny gave me from her stash. (Or was it from Bev’s stash? I can’t remember. All I know is that I LOVE this fabric.)

Now I am quite undecided over the whole thing. Can you help? I’ve put together a little collage of my possible combinations. Which do you like best? Which one(s) are NOT going to work, no matter how much I like them?

I crave your honesty. I’m set to start piecing her on Friday night. Please help!

Isabel’s Trip Around the World Quilt

January 28, 2013 in Things I've Made | 12 comments

It’s finished! It’s really, really finished! And it only took two years! ha. It started with these plans and got pieced like this and then moved onto this and started growing like this. It was over a year ago that the top was pieced.

And then the quilting totally got derailed. Bunches and puckers all over the back. I had to redo a lot of quilting last Spring. Rip out over 50 feet of stitches, resandwich and restretch, repin, etc. Then it got hot. So hot that the candle in my china cabinet did this: No one, and I mean NO ONE, can quilt under those conditions!

Luckily, having to restart the quilting caused me to rethink my pattern. I ended up adding a handquilted floral center, which is my take on one of these cool patterns I found online, with the crosshatching by machine radiating out from there. It made machine quilting much smoother and gave Izzy a little special handquilting in her quilt, just like her big sister has.

As you can see, I still had problems with puckering, but that’s the only trouble on the whole quilt. Close enough! Hopefully some of that will tame down after I wash it.

This Dresden plate on the back is the label for the quilt. I didn’t get to photograph what I wrote, but I put her name, date, etc, on the yellow center.

Doesn’t this scene look so peaceful? It wasn’t. It was BITTER cold the day of the photoshoot and I had two very cold little girlies accompanying me, whining the whole time. The car was parked about a football field away so I couldn’t exactly let them play in the warm car while I worked. Sigh.

Since this quilt’s title elicits visions of travel, I thought it would be fitting to photograph it with an old railcar.

Izzy is excited to have a quilt on her big girl bed!

I’d like to title the above picture, “Made in Grand Rapids,” as I made both those quilts here and the bunk beds were also made locally. To maintain the honesty of this title, please disregard the pink Tommy Hilfiger pillowcase and the owl pillow bought at Target.

It feels sooo good to have this quilt done. I almost can’t believe that I really made this. I’ve always wanted a Trip Around the World quilt! I know: this isn’t really MY quilt. I guess I’d better start collecting fabrics for my own! If I’m lucky, it’ll only take me two years to finish it!

Tags: daughter, handquilting, machine quilting, polkadot binding, quilt, Trip Around the World, twin bed

Double Wedding Ring: a Window Quilt

January 21, 2013 in Antiques | 6 comments

Last fall my mother-in-law and I went to Everlasting Bloom’s Vintage Flea Market. We were there mostly to shop for ourselves, but as I had recently drawn my sister’s name for our family Secret Santa, I was also on the lookout for the perfect gift for her.

I had “previewed” the sale the day before because I was too excited to wait for Marian’s day off. Even though I had two very curious little girls in tow, I managed to spot this delightful piece hanging overhead. All of a sudden sparkly stars filled my eyes and I heard the Hallelujah chorus.

This. Was. It.

Melissa’s Christmas present.

But even though I KNEW that had to get one of these beautiful “quilts in a window” for her (there were four, I believe) I still waited until Marian could confirm the decision the next day. It was agony to wait until the next day, worrying that they would all sell. But I had to trust God with this one. If it was meant to be, there would be one left waiting for me the next day.

And there was.

Phew.

This cute pumpkin was still there, too, so I also got to take him home. For me. I love it.

Marian deemed it a wise purchase and I was able to barter with the seller, as the original price was out of my Secret Santa spending limit. We picked the sharpest one of the bunch. It had one pane missing which we thought added interest. I didn’t feel bad bartering for this because it was extremely dirty. Both the window and the quilt had to be majorly cleaned. So really, I was taking a risk with the purchase. If that quilt got ruined in the washing I was going to be out some mad cash.

I carefully removed the staples holding the quilt in place and took it to my sewing machine to put a running stitch around the edge. The piece was cut from a larger quilt and therefore did not have any binding around the edges. Then I did my “oxy-clean-in-the-bathtub” treatment on it. That old girl washed up real nice.

My four-year-old was quite exited to help me clean the window next. I let her spray the windex while I scrubbed. Normally I would have to remind her a bazillion times not to spray so much but in this case we needed all the spray we could get! Once the panes were shined I wondered about painting the frame of the window. It was decided that this would take away from the antiquity of the whole thing. I put the quilt back on and she was ready to go!

There was one small hitch, though. I wasn’t sure how to transport it to my parents’ house 2 1/2 hours away. I was only able to bring it home in the first place because I only had one child with me when I bought it and could then cram it into the car with us. However, the car would be full of passengers, a dog, and luggage when we left for my parents’. But at the last minute, and I mean the last minute before we left for Mayville, we ended up replacing my husband’s Volkswagon Beetle with a Chevy Equinox. Phew. Crisis averted. Melissa got her gift afterall!

I was already having a bad day when I set out to photographic this quilt. (It seems I’m having more bad days than good these days. Something’s gotta give!) On the day in mention we actually had snow on the ground. The first and last time since winter started. I snapped one photo of the framed piece before it did a faceplant in the snow. Reva was inside, tapping insistently on the window, trying to get my attention for NO REASON and then the whole frame falls into the snow like that. Ugh. One does not survive the life I’m living these days without saying, “I am not giving up.” So I photographed it covered in snow. And it worked out.

Anchor Birdie Sling

January 14, 2013 in Things I've Made | 4 comments

If nautical nonsense is something you wish,

check out my Anchor Birdie Sling!

Okay, so there’s really nothing nonsensical about this bag. Except maybe the fact that I gave it away.

Trust me, that was really hard to do. I knew going into this thing that I was making something really cute that I would want for myself. And that I really didn’t have to give it away because the recipient had no idea that I was going to give this to her.

But for the love of my mother, I gave it to her for Christmas.

I don’t regret it. She’ll get scads of use out of it for years to come. And then when she dies, I’ll get it back.

I know! Morbid! I can only joke about that because my mother has these super genes that will make her one of those, “over 100 years old” women. In all likelihood I will be getting the purse back when I’m so old that my vision is gone and I won’t even know what I’m looking at to appreciate it.

A few years ago my mom was talking nonchalantly about what each of her five children would inherit when she dies. One of us was going to get her camper trailer. I told her this was a pointless conversation as that thing will be long gone by the time my mother gets the call from heaven.

The only enticing item she offered as inheritance was her newer Pontiac GTO. Which will probably have attained “antique” status by then. I’m down with that. Though I think my baby sister is getting that. I don’t remember what I got. All I really want are the quilts that my great-grandmother made. Well, and the GTO. My sister and I may have to resort to a good old fashioned throwdown for that thing. Sadly, Kay will have 11 years of youth on me. In a fight between an 81-year-old and a 70-year-old, who do you imagine would win? Unless I invest in some brass knuckles. She wouldn’t expect that from an old lady…

Back to the purse.

There isn’t much to say about it that you can’t see. It’s from Amy Butler’s birdie sling pattern. The same one I used to make my Ghastlie Sling. I added a hanging key fob inside as well as sewed through the center of the large pocket so as to form two smaller ones: perfect for cellphones. I also appliqued on that anchor. That took quite a bit of time. Finding the perfect anchor image online. Downloading, resizing, printing, ironing the red fabric onto interfacing, tracing the anchor, cutting it out with an exacto knife, and ironing it onto the chevron fabric. Ironing it on while guessing all the while about the placement, since I knew the bottom of the bag curved under, but wasn’t sure how much.

Oh, and that crazy red band at the top. I didn’t think the red dots would blend well with the chevron, as they both had a lot of white in them. I decided that putting a bit of solid red at the bottom of the band would be a good breaker. THAT was tricky to do. Because while the top bands look straight, you really cut them out in large curved pieces. I had only a wee bit of the polkadot fabric left and had cut the first batch too small. Doh. I barely had enough extra to complete the bands!

Now do you see why it took me so long to finish my Ghaslie purse? It’s because I was making two purses at the same time! Making twice the mistakes! Like that one time when I cut the wrong pattern (four huge pieces) out of the fusible fleece. For both purses. I didn’t want to spend another $10 on fleece so I made it work by patching together the right size pieces.

Fortunately my mother will never notice any flaws in the purse. And if she does, I guess I’ll just have to take it back…

Stitched in Color Contest: Show Me Your Emerald

January 8, 2013 in Fabric | 1 comment

Did you know that there is a “color of the year”?

Last year it was turquoise. My favorite.

This year it’s emerald. Nearly as awesome.

Rachel at Stitched in Color is holding a contest for her readers to come up with a list of nine fabrics from the fatquartershop that portray emerald.

This is my vision.

I call it, “Trip to the Emerald City.”

I finished reading an abridged version of The Wizard of Oz to Olivia last night. I love both the book and movie.

For my fabrics I chose mostly emeralds, but threw in some yellow brick road, a little bit of Dorothy’s dress, and some red for her ruby red slippers. (Though in the book her slippers are silver…)

It was tough finding emerald green fabrics. (Hint, hint, designers!!) I’ve been scouting out greens for a few years now and still have a limited selection in my stash. Hopefully this “color of the year” business will spur someone to bust out more great emerald prints!

Ghastlie Birdie Sling: A Halloween Purse

November 10, 2012 in Things I've Made | 3 comments

Well, it only took a year of watching my Alexander Henry Ghastlie fabric waste away in my drawer to finally decide how to put it to spooky good use.

A purse!

I originally wanted to make myself a fantastic circle skirt to wear every Halloween with a black taffeta petticoat, striped stockings and black witch boots. But circle skirts require lots of fabric. I think over 3 yards. And then there’s the investment in all the accessories.

But a purse, well, I had the materials for that! (Mostly–the interfacing requirements are enough to drive any good sewist batty.)

Since my sister loved the birdie sling that I made her I decided to use that same Amy Butler pattern for myself, too.

Don’t you just love the fabric? It reminds me of the Addams Family. Kooky relatives having a ghastlie meal together. Very October. Very Fall.

After interviewing my sister about her bag, I decided to do a few modifications. I turned the super-huge interior pocket into two (I had done that with her bag, too, and she had liked it), added a snap closure and a hanging interior key fob.

And my friend Kate had the great idea to add a rosette to the bag. I found a tutorial for a rose (and enlarged 100%), which is what the ladies on the bag are sporting, and got to work with some wool felt that I had. I love wool felt!

My original fantastic plan to was to finish it by the end of September so that I could use it throughout all of October. I started this at the end of August. I finished it two days before Halloween. I finished the rose and added that (making the bag officially complete) some time later. So much for making a deadline!

Is this bag handy! Seriously. I LOVE the key fob! I have it on other purses but am still always fumbling to find the fobs in those because they match the liner. This time the string to my fob is off-white, which contrasts nicely with my lining and I can find it easily every time.

The birdie sling is also very roomy and the pockets are just the right size. I’m never fishing around for my cell phone! I really should make another one. I mean–it only took two months to make this one! I should have a summer one finished in no time! ha.

I used Alexander Henry’s Ghaslies fabric for the exterior and interior panels. The polkadot band and handles are Michael Miller’s dots in ebony.

Button Box

November 1, 2012 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

One of my fondest sewing memories I have from childhood is of looking through my mother’s button box. I could spend enormous amounts of time sifting through all the different buttons, admiring different ones for their color or shape, daydreaming about what I could make with them.

The button box I have today carries the same allure: this time the child sifting through its treasury is my 4-year-old. After inheriting Grandma Hunt’s collection my box is quite full.

And quite magnetizing.

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