Luckily, there's no stress of me needing to finish a wool scarf for many months, but I hope to work on this more soon. I absolutely love the color. It's close to the perfect green, in my opinion.
And the texture? I can't get enough of it. Malabrigo is a great choice for defined stitches.
Coming soon, some thank yous, and come back tomorrow for a return of Food Friday!
I can now make french knots to my heart's content, and lazy daisies are now in my knowledge base as well. The embroidery design was drawn by theflossbox, a fun little etsy shop that I will definitely visit again.
I had fun picking a color for each section.
I chose my fabric scraps with the thread choices in mind, and I like the eclectic mix. I probably would never choose some of these fabrics together, but I think it works!
I've only got one embroidery block to finish for this bee, and it's a good thing, too! My deadline is one week from today. I'm about halfway through the stitching on the fourth one, and I hope to finish it up this weekend.
Jill had a barbecue on Sunday. I always like to take my sister a little homemade something, and this time, it was a new pillow for her couch.
I made a quilted log cabin square with some of my current favorite fabrics and just made a simple envelope pillow for her to enjoy. I used some Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush, Kona Marine, Joel Dewberry Aviary 2, and an unidentified Moda fat quarter (I think it might be from the Happy Camper line, but I'm not sure).
Love it!
I can always tell if it's a good gift by whether or not I want to keep it for myself!
Speaking of Jill, she posted this picture of us on flickr recently. It's from my mom's wedding (almost three years ago). We have a fun little game where we make silly faces, but she usually breaks into laughter before I do. Oh, how grateful I am for my sister.
I think this one turned out the best.
My second one is definitely "wonky".
I also finished up my blocks for do.Good Stitches earlier this month.
Jenn asked for triangle blocks in masculine orange & blue fabrics. I loved these blocks. They were fun to make, and I think they look so bold in the colors Jenn chose.
I also joined a group that Chawne mentioned on her blog called 60 blocks of summer. The goal is to finish at least 60 blocks of summer, which seems totally possible.
I've finished six blocks so far, so I better get moving!
This one is for me, and I used Outside Oslo fabric by Jessica Jones for the exterior and pockets. The interior is Alexander Henry's Dasha, and the straps are Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley.
I also made two similar bags using a Joann's home decor fabric I found on sale last year, as well as some awesome green Echino, and an Anthology balloon print for the lining.
I gave one to my sister and kept one for myself. I couldn't part with the sunglasses (or at least a piece of them).
I just love the green and purple combo!
Choosing the fabric for a project is definitely my favorite part, and I loved coming up with these combinations. The bag comes together very quickly.
I followed the pattern pretty closely, but I did make the straps longer on the last bag.
As written, the straps are not long enough to carry the bag on your shoulder, which I prefer.
Try the pattern for yourself, and you can grocery shop in style!
This is the happiest part! My bag for the Goodie Bag Swap showed up, from Mamamary2! She chose such lovely fabrics to make me this fun tote bag.
You know I love the elephants, the colors (look at the contrast stitching!), and the Flea Market Fancy fabrics are such a treat. The bag is nice and roomy, and I plan to carry it along to the grocery store, and weekend trips as well.
She also sent me some amazing fabrics to complete the package.
Look! They are all so beautiful. Thank you again, Mary!
I sent out a mixture of fabrics in tangerine and eggplant shades, mainly based on the Sugar Pop fabrics. I added a few other prints, like the Mendocino orange octopi, the Hope Valley Canyon Stripe in Fiesta, as well as Kona Tangerine and Eggplant. Each bee member added some additional fabrics, which I love. Each block is so different!
I've been enjoying these blocks, but I wasn't quite ready to work with them.
This weekend, though, I finally took a photo of all the lovely blocks I received.
Aren't they incredible? Ack! I cannot wait to finish this quilt and enjoy it. Please click through on the photo to see the credits for each block. I sewed them together on Saturday, and started working on the border. I'm not sashing the blocks, as I thought sewing them right next to each other added to the fun wonkiness.
I bought extra fabric in some of my favorite Sugar Pop prints, as well as pieces of the solids, so I'll be working on the backing soon. I haven't decided how I'd like to quilt this. Since I've never done free motion quilting, I'm not sure this is the project I'd like to try first.
Any quilting thoughts/suggestions?
I finished my third Bottled Rainbows block this week.
I don't why I didn't think of it last month, but I realized that I could work on Bottled Rainbows as part of Project Spectrum. Duh. I know, obvious, right?
So, this week, I put together my Lime green block. I have a ton of green scraps. I recently traded scraps with a few people, including Melissa, so my scraps options were plentiful.
Bella offered to help me place scraps, which was awfully helpful.
Here's the finished block. I really love it, although I think the orange block is still my favorite.
I like the look of these blocks all lined up in a row.
I hope to get my second green block done before the end of June.
In other green crafty news, I've cast on for a knitting project with this yarn:
I just love the color, and even though Worsted Wool is absolutely impractical for Houston right now, I couldn't resist starting something with it. It should work up quickly, and I'll share photos soon.
I'm working on getting some furniture out of the house and donated this morning, as well as breakfast with a dear friend. And of course, there will be crafting!
Have a fun Saturday!
Please click the image to see photo credits
I was inspired by Sara to put together a few links and a favorite mosaic this morning.
I'm thinking of making this for dinner tonight.
I'd also love to try this delicious concoction.
I think Mr. Olias would look so dapper in this.
This other cat-related pin cracks me up!
An embroidered pillow case a la AMH is on my to-do list. I bought this exact fabric. I couldn't resist!
I LOVE this yellow quilt
I'd really like to get one of these for my desk at work
Happy Friday, peeps!
I've been wanting to try the Buttercup pattern for ages. I thought I might give it a go for the Goodie Bag Swap, but I ended up going in a different direction.
Then, my friend Jenny said she was headed to Seattle for a month-long course, and I thought that was perfect excuse to make her a gift.
Of course, she's already left, and is only two weeks from returning. I finished Saturday and gave it to her husband (also my dear friend), and now she'll have a gift when she returns.
Timing doesn't always cooperate with intentions, does it?
I knew Jenny would love the Ruby Star Rising View Finder fabric, and Michael Miller's love birds just called out to be used. This bag came together in just a few hours. There is a tiny bit of curve sewing, so be prepared for that!
Also, there are two options to obtain the pattern. You can download it for free (this is what I did), or you can purchase the pattern with two sizes, and a license to sell your finished bags.
On the entirely different hand, fabric purchases in 2011? Well, let's just say I have a very healthy stash, and I'm okay with that. Melissa and I were just talking about this. I don't feel any guilt over fabric purchases, because I'm sewing often and more fabric can be used quickly (versus yarn). I'm way behind on taking pictures of the stash, but here are a couple of my recent purchases:
FQ set of the Outside Oslo line, by Jessica Jones, purchased from Pink Chalk Fabrics
Summersville hand printed fabrics, purchased on etsy
I'll share some more new stash in the coming weeks.
I finished my second embroider-bee block last night. I really love the way the words turned out.
To make this, I:
cut a template balloon out of freezer paper,
cut out the shapes from interface-fused fabric,
glued them on to my backing fabric, and
stitched them in place.
I wrote out the words and then just traced them in thread.
Very fun, and a pretty quick project. I used scraps to match the stitching, and hopefully, the recipient will love it!
I hope you're enjoying your Saturday. I know I am!
I've started brainstorming for June, the month of green.
I created this mosaic (I just love making mosaics!) of some of my favorite green flickr inspirations. Please click through to see picture sources.
I hope to work more on this new quilting project:
I'm making a Map of the States quilt. After trying this block back in February, I decided I would love an entire quilt of scrappy squares.
My inspiration started with the Magnolia Lane line, by Laura Gunn.
I love her bold florals, and especially the Painter's Canvas prints. I think they pair nicely with the other prints I've chosen. There's a little Kumari Gardens, Valori Wells, Amy Butler, and Joel Dewberry.
This picture I took in Berkeley last December is also inspiring to me. Ah, I wish it was as cool as that rainy day, instead of 100 degrees. Well, we can't have everything!
Have a great weekend!
I stitched up three more owl pouches over the weekend, and I'll be sending out all the goodies to my winners tomorrow. I've been toying with the idea of making some of these little guys to sell on etsy, since Keyka Lou allows her patterns to be used for this purpose, as long as credit is given. With a full time job, I'm not sure it's really feasible, but I may give it a try. Winners, check your mailboxes soon for these little guys! I think the red and aqua one is my favorite. Big surprise, I know!
Oh, I also recently finished the May do.Good Stitches quilt blocks. These circles are pretty ingenious! You can find the tutorial here. I really enjoyed making these.
