2014

I feel like December hasn't existed.  Though my calendar tells me otherwise.  It's also telling me that the end of the year is only 2 weeks away.  I don't know if I'm ready to face a new year yet as I really kind of enjoyed 2014.

We did our own family pictures.

The Feather Quilt started to become a reality.

I made a tutorial for a Spring Blog hop for Lupin over at Bugs and Fishes.

I finished my mom's table runner.

I started my last big order for GRREAT.

We installed an entire backyard fence all by ourselves and my garden went nuts even though it turned out to be a bad year overall for vegetables.

Finished the big order.

Fi-Beastie turned 2.

The Feather Quilt was finished.

Halloween came and went.

RenFaire was cold but even better than last year.

Fiona had a blast.

I designed and blogged my first tutorial under my new name.

And I completed 2 more Lil' Twister Stockings for Chris and I (before Thanksgiving even!).

My sewing year was dominated by The Feather Quilt project, but I did so many other projects that I just did not manage to snap pictures of or blog about.  One of them includes Fiona's RenFaire costume (which you can see in 2 of the pictures about).  But that's the way of a crafty mind.  I often get so caught up in my current project that the last thing I want to do (remember to do) is snap pictures, edit, upload and then blog about them.

Starting in 2015 I'm hoping to start blogging under a new name, Little Red Thread, and begin getting a few more quilt tutorials and designs pushed out into the public eye.

This whole year has been a challenge and a struggle to find time to get all my ideas on paper and then tell you all about them.  While I try my best to keep this blog updated, and I'll be honest when I say I have no idea how some bloggers update daily, we've been having difficulties on the technical side of things, mainly with an ancient computer and time management on the toddler end of the spectrum.  I don't know how 2015 will turn out, but I do know I'll continue to do my best to keep you along on as many sewing adventures as I can manage.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Joyful Sewing!

As It Ends

I snapped this pic Mid-August.  I couldn't believe the leaves were already turning and falling.

Despite the on going heat or as most people are calling it, Suddenly Summer, I've got two more Lil' Twister Stockings in the making and they're almost ready for quilting.  These will be for Chris and I.  I'm also sketching out Fiona's RenFaire costume to make up in the next 2 weeks (fingers crossed).  I'm attempting to make it without a pattern.  It's very hard to find patterns in her size for what I'm looking for and really if I were better at writing up patterns I'd publish a few for other people to use.  Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching!

The Feather Quilt (DONE!)

It's DONE! Completed, boxed up, lovingly given and well received.

I'll admit to being extremely attached to this project.

It certainly was a love/hate relationship with all the pattern woes, but I am so immensely proud of the final result.  I even got a little weepy before wrapping it up.  It's hard to part with something you've put so much effort into, especially knowing you'll never see it again.

The main backing fabric looks so uniform, which surprised even me seeing as it's split down the middle and sewn back together to make 2 seperate pieces.  Even the pieced section looks remarkably "intentional".

And those points.  I feel like I could've almost entered this in a competition.

Even if it's hot (Summer finally showed up over the weekend here in the Midwest) never underestimate a good final quilt snuggle.

If you'd like to see how this whole project came together from beginning to end follow the link below:

Feather Quilt Parts 1-5

Happy Quilting!

The Feather Quilt (Part 5)

Check it out!  The Feather Quilt is all quilted up!

Thanks to Missouri Star Quilt Co. for doing another fabulous job and staying true to their turn around time.  I haven't measured the quilt since I've got it back, but I swear I lost about 2 inches on all sides from the density in the quilting.  While I'm not nuts over how the quilting pattern turned out (the loops were alot closer together than I thought they'd be) it will work out for the best.  Quilts that will see lots of use and wear should be quilted more densely than, for example, a wall hanging.

I'm trying to decide if I'll bind it in the backing fabric or do a scrappy binding from left over fabric remnants.  I'll need to sit down and look at it first, but that also means I'll need to clean my floor of all the thread bits again.  I've been going back and forth about washing this one before giving it away.  I wash 90% of all my quilts before gifting them mostly because I'm paranoid of stitching pulling out or colors running. Since this quilt is dominated by white space, it's probably in my best interest to wash it prior to wrapping it up. This means I'll be throwing in 5+ SHOUT color catcher sheets to make sure the white stays white.

This quilt's absolute completion date is set for August 22nd.

Peeking Out

The Last One. Project GRREAT comes to a close. 60 pups will be shipped out later this afternoon. Feels strange to be done sewing these and a little bittersweet as I won't be doing these ornaments "en mass" anymore.

I've been sick the last week too which has made finishing up this order all the more challenging, but they're still arriving 3 weeks ahead of schedule.  That always makes me feel good and helps lighten the load for other projects.

I know a busy schedule has prevented me from blogging much this summer, but I hope you've all been enjoy the Summer (especially those of us here in the Midwest).  We had record low high temperatures last week, thanks to a mini Polar Vortex.  It meant highs only reached into the mid-70's in the middle of JULY!  That's nuts people! 

My project list continues to expand and contract as commissions come and go.  I've busy looking thru my fabric stash to begin binding The Feather Quilt too :)  It came back from the quilters at the beginning of July.

Cutting It Out

120 pieces of felt are all cut and ready to start the next stage of assembly.

40 pieces of felt is about 3" high.

That's enough to give me phantom hand aches just thinking about it again.

Now imagine 3 stacks of these and you'll have an idea of why it took me nearly a month of constant cutting in the evenings to get them all done.

I've started embroidering these ornaments already and am making nice progress now that the Feathers Quilt is gone for a few weeks.

There won't be too much to report for the next month as I finish this order up, but I can promise you that I already have my sights set on a second quilt and Fiona's Renaissance costume for this year, not too mention completing 2 more Lil' Twister Stockings for Chris and I (before Christmas!).

Happy Sewing!

The Feather Quilt (part 4)

 38 blocks are squared up.



Laid out, sewn together and neatly pressed to make 5 rows of funky feathers.  Those rows are about 72" long, this is a very huge quilt.



 Sadly, the backing fabric I had fallen in love with only had 5 yards left on the bolt and I most definitely needed 5 1/2 yards of fabric.
 

 I went ahead and bought the 5 remaining yards not sure how I was going to add in another 1/2 yard of fabric.  Once I was home and laid everything out on my floor I realized that I may have just "painted myself into a corner".  I had to walk away for a full 2 days before I could look at it again, I was that aggravated. Finally, after tearing thru my fabric stash and much creative cursing, I found a few coordinating strips of fabric from an old Moda jelly roll.



I was hesitant to cut my backing seeing as it was already short, but I did it anyways and in the end it was the smartest move I could have made.  Not only did it give me enough length to complete the backing, but it added another mod feature to the normally "boring" back of the quilt.

It was shipped out Memorial Day weekend for quilting and I couldn't be more relieved to have it off my sewing table and floor for that matter.

The Feather Quilt (part 3)

I'm in the homestretch now and it's been a long and tiring haul.  I'm at the point where my sewing studio is looking more empty as the last bits of fabric are cut up and sewn into the quilt.  There's been a copious amount of seam ripping and cursing and new template cutting too.  I've also sewn thru 876 yards of thread so far.

I'll be switching to white thread for sewing all the rows together, but first things first, I have to lay out all 38 blocks and find the smallest one so I can square all the other 37 blocks to that measurement.  The hubby is excellent for helping me get thru this stage.  I cringe every time I need to square a block up.  It's hard to cut off a sliver here and there to make sure everything is as perfect as possible.

I still think everything has come out very nicely despite the terrible scaling issues with the pattern we've had to overcome.  I'm very pleased with the accuracy of all my seams and am still keeping my fingers crossed that all my obsession with perfect 1/4" seams will pay off overall.

I will not miss the enormity of the ironing I had to do with this quilt either.  As I was sewing the last blocks together I noticed that I had been simply throwing them into a pile on my ironing board.  

 

Some things you just get so tired of doing, even if it's for the greater good.

The Next Gen

I often wonder if I hadn't had such an avid sewing grandmother if I would've still taken up the "needle and thread".  What if I didn't have a grandmother to show me how to thread a sewing machine, cross stitch, tie a knot at the end of all my threads, show me how to read patterns and what pinking shears were used for?

What if I was like every other kid I knew growing up, obsessed with Barbies, Crayola markers, Trapper Keepers, BFF's and summer vacations?

I think that there is creativity hiding deep in every child.

It shows up in imaginary play, curiosity with mud and sticks, fascination with paints and how things work, but somewhere along the way it dies and I can't figure out why for some kids it stays so strongly rooted and for others it's just fades out.

I do know that if I hadn't had my grandmother to at least show me how things like clothing and dolls were put together, my curiosity would've never been peeked.

I feel so grateful for having had my grandma show me these things when I was so young and even for a mom who didn't always have time to keep sewing like she used to (raising 5 children will do that to you) she always managed to show us how to be creative and clever with what we had on hand.   It chokes me up a bit to think back on it.  I can't imagine not sewing quilts, building fences, or growing a garden.  I learned all these skills from my grandparents and my parents because they felt value in what they were showing me how to do.  Because it was important to them, it became important to me.

The creative crowd is becoming more hip, but true skill, the kind that is learned from generation to generation, is still very much a niche and in constant danger of being forgotten.  While technology develops and makes doing some things easier and faster the basic skill, thankfully, remains the same.

There will always be a need for needle and thread and for people to know how to use them skillfully.  I feel obligated to show my daughter how to do these things, not because it's needed, but because it will open up a world of wonder and possibility and respect for how our world is made.

The Feather Quilt (part 2)

I have more pictures that I need to get uploaded so you can check out the progress in more detail.  Yes, there is progress, but it feels painful.

This quilt pattern is truly giving me fits.  I plan on writing the editors of Quilty again to inquire if anyone made this quilt prior to publishing it (other than the designer).  It's a really cool pattern, no doubt, but the templates, measurements and complexity of it make it more of an intermediate quilt, not a beginner.

There's actually alot of skill and patience needed to even get thru the feather piecing parts.  It's challenging me and I've been piecing quilts for over 10 years now.

I think for each of the 28 feathers I've sewn so far, every single one of them as had at least 2 of its seams ripped out at least twice, some of them have been ripped out and sewn 3 separate times!  Yes, I am being a little picky trying to get everything lined up properly, but it's a finicky pattern with its angled pieces.  I thought I could get away with a few "off" seams, but in the end I realized the mistake would only amplify the bigger the block became.  That means that it's taking a very long time to piece the blocks and I'm only half way done.

Ripping out all those seams also makes me realize I should invest in a larger, more comfy seam ripper.

It's worth noting all of my seams on the "feather" portion of the block have been pressed OPEN to help it lay crisp and flat when I was cutting out all the feather sections.  I believe it's important to press seams open when you'll be using a template to cut your actual pieces.

Spring Bunnies Tutorials

My Spring Bunnies Tutorials are now both up and live over on Lupin's blog!

 Part 1 Making Spring Felt Bunnies

Part 2 Adding the Spring Felt Bunnies to a Yarn Wreath

Check them out and make a few up for a Happy Spring and a Happy Easter!

Spring Bunnies are here!

I'll be sharing this free tutorial over on Lupin's blog very soon!

It will be broken up into two tutorials so if you want to make just the bunnies you can :)

Part 1 will include all the instructions to make an adorable set of 5 Spring Bunnies.

Part 2 will include instructions for adding the Spring Bunnies to a yarn wrapped wreath.

 

Links will be provided here and of course over on Lupin's blog!

Happy Spring, finally!

Bunnies x Bunnies

2 months ago my blogger friend, Lupin over at BugsandFishes, put out a request for guest bloggers.  I decided to take the bait and have been working, albeit slowly, on my very first FREE tutorial!

Though I've had some recent practice writing up a pattern and am getting ready to publish that one to my Tumus shop soon, this tutorial has been a little more lengthy, but will not lack on the cute factor.

I hope to get the whole completed masterpiece over to her by this weekend and will let you all know when it goes live and will post a proper link to it when it's ready :)

Till then here's a sneak peek.

And yes it will involve a bunch of bunnies.

Hearts and Diamonds

I finally got a picture of my mom's table runner in "action" last week.

I didn't see her till a few days after Valentine's Day, but it was still well received and appreciated.  The flowers my dad got her also helped make it look even more splendid.

 

I must admit that I'm really pleased with how the quilting came out over all.  Sometimes when you're so immersed in a project that your eyes cross you forget to step back and take a look at the big picture.

Not seeing this runner for a week helped put my perspective back in place and it's a small nod to my ever growing quilting skills.  I certainly did not do all those diamonds in one sitting, but over a course of about 2 weeks and I only worked on it for an hour at a time because it's such tedious work.

There was alot of seam ripping.  In fact, the binding was originally supposed to be red, but I ended up cutting it too narrow and in the end could not turn it over to the front to finish sewing it into place.

The purple binding turned out to be a happy accident and looks just as intentional as if I'd planned it that way all along.

Happy Sewing!

The Feather Quilt (Part 1)

My cousin Allison is getting married in August this year and I politely inquired if she would like a quilt as a gift?  She was very enthusiastic about the idea and I promised her it would be a nod to her more "modern" style.

(so. much. fabric.)

The pattern I'm using is called Feathers by Anna Maria Horner.

(not mine^^)

It can be found in Quilty's Winter 2012 issue.  I've actually worked out of this Quilty issue before for Corbin's Quilt and have had my eye on the Feathers quilt for well over a year now.

I'm not sure how I thought this pattern would be easier than most, maybe because it's mostly strip piecing and then cutting, but it requires a copious amount of fabric.  Copious, as in, 14 assorted prints in 1/4 yd pieces, 5 assorted fat quarters and, I believe, 5 1/2yds of white for the background.

I couldn't even fit all the fabrics in the picture and truthfully there are 3 of the fabrics that don't seem to work as well as I'd hoped.  When you're trying to find the much fabric in a quilt shop it can just be overwhelming.  So I've had to rummage thru my stash to come up with substitutes, but, to be frank, 14 assorted prints just isn't enough variety and this quilt THRIVES on variety.  I think it would look hot using vintage fabrics or even doing  it all in ombre hues for the feathers.
 I really want to make this quilt again using the ombre idea, but that will have to wait.

Wish me luck as I start on this humungous project.
The projected size is 72" x 90" (pretty much a Queen sized quilt).

Those Pesky Triangles

As I am wont to do with quilt patterns these days, I ended up modifying this Ric Rac pattern by Ms. Rosie's Quilt Co. to become a table runner. I'd like to say I did it because that's what I wanted to do in the first place, but that would be lying.

No, the sad and silly truth is it was simply too many triangles.  Triangles are my personal quilting nemesis.

I'm sure you have one.  Everyone in the sewing world does.

There is something that either intimidates the crap out of you or some technique that you just can't get right.

Triangles are like that for me (so are french knots, but that's another story).

Even the word sounds devilish.  Triangles *shudder*

 Still, I torture myself by doing patterns that involve them.  Sure there are tools and paper piecing methods to help you get perfectly pointy points, but I guess I'm stubborn.  I did this pattern the "hard way" and cut them first.  

I've since learned my lesson with that.  Don't cut triangles if you don't have to.

There are TONS of methods of how to do them, what's fastest, easiest, smoothest, less finicky.....just google: how to sew quilting triangles

 

Ugh triangles for days..........

Truth of the matter is that only one method is going to click with you, maybe two if you're savvy, but the one that you pick up the fastest will become your preference and the only way to find out what you prefer is to get out there and make mistakes.

Lots of tricksy triangle mistakes.

I'm not going to tell you which one I prefer but it's one that works for me in most situations :)

In the meantime, enjoy some pretty quilting with MORE triangles and diamonds.