scrappy string quilt

Hey, look! I finally finished a quilt, and it feels pretty good. This pretty blue and green quilt will be sent to my mom soon. I started it ages ago, and I'd hoped it would be done in time for Christmas. Sorry, mom!

For the first time, I did free-motion quilting. I'm sure I broke all sorts of quilting rules in the process, but it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun. There will be more free-motion quilting in my future.

 

button calendar

I've been taking time to finish up some projects before starting others. Let me tell you: resisting the urge to start something is not my strong suit. On Sunday, all I could think about was making a quilt of sawtooth stars. Still, it's been satisfying to cross things off of my to-do list.

First up, a button calendar made from a pattern in Rashida Coleman-Hale's I Love Patchwork. The calendar is for a friend of mine. I'm not sure it won't be too long before I make one for me (and my sister. and my mom. and anyone else looking for an adorable calendar.).

Nearly half done, I realized that I'd actually made mine closer to the book version than I intended. I guess I couldn't help but love the yellow + natural colour combination Rashida uses in her own calendar.  Truly, it's one of my favourites combos (yellow + anything is tops in my books).

I made only one small adjustment: instead of a using a grommet, I used ribbon to make two hangers at the top. Grommets scare me a little, and using the ribbons felt like my friend might be able to hang it a little easier. Because I couldn't find linen twill tape, I used scraps of fabric fused to canvas; to keep them from fraying, I trimmed around the edges with pinking shears. To keep extra buttons and months from getting lost when they aren't being used, I made a cute zippered pouch to match.

right now

After a post-free 4 weeks, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the things I could tell you about: the many, many projects I've started, my trip to London (eee!). Instead, I think my first post back after an unintended break should be a list of what I'm working on right now. Maybe this post will also help me finish them soon-ish? I promise I'll write more on each of these soon (and my trip to London).

• Building an embroidery growth chart from this tutorial for Isabella (and maybe a second for another adorable baby I know!)
• Hand stitching the binding the scrappy string quilt I made in December (it's coming, mom!)
• Finishing up the button calender from Rashida Coleman-Hale's super amazing book, I Heart Patchwork. By the way, if you don't own it yet, go get it! It's filled with beautiful, original (and truly useful!) projects.
• Houses! I've been working away on finishing up my paper-pieced houses from this incredible class at the workroom. Once again, the amazing Johanna has outdone herself with this adorable design.
• My new spring dress, made from Heather Moore's organic fabric line with Cloud 9 fabrics. My invisible zipper foot just came in, and I'm soclose to finishing it! (I'm deeply suspicious, though, that I made it three sizes too big. Details, details.)
• Slowly piecing my Flock of Triangles quilt. I'm making it with lots of solid fabrics, something totally outside of my comfort zone.

There are, of course, a million other things on the go, but I'm not quite ready to admit just how many projects I have on the go publicly.  And I have some Liberty fabric that I'm eager to turn into dresses and tops from my trip to London, so I want to scratch some of this on my to-do list. With the summer weather on its way, I better get sewing!