More New Fabric! + Bloomerie Scrap Challenge

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's been so quiet over here.  I started working on a new dig (when I'm not quilting I'm an archaeologist) and the long days in the sun digging have just been so tiring that I have no energy to do anything in my sewing room when I'm home.

I do have a quilt in the works that I hope to make progress on on my weekend off.  Hopefully I'll have pictures of it soon.  I'm loving how it's coming out so far.

In the mean time here are some photos of my fabric purchase from my trip to the LQS last weekend:

Here they are broken down by project;

Fabric for a quilt for my Mother-in-Law's birthday

 

Fabric for a baby quilt for a friend's new baby boy

 

My color choices for the I Love Kona Charm Swap- I just need to cut them into charms now and send them off to the hostess!

Impulse buy fabric.  I love gnomes and the Better Gnomes and Gardens fabric was too cute I had to get some.

Remnants!  Who can leave the fabric store without buying themselves some remnants?

And speaking of fabric.......  I've got some exciting news!

I've been selected to be one of 4 contestants in Rachel of Stitched in Color's Bloomerie Scrap Challenge!!!!  You can find the post talking about the challenge here and the post listing the contestants here.

I'm still working on what it is exactly I'm going to make with the fabric Bloomerie sent me for the challenge, but whatever I make I'm looking forward to using it!!!!

-Stephanie

Stacked Coins Quilt Finish

Happy Friday everyone!

Do you guys all remember when I showed you this quilt top I made?

Well now it's a finished queen size bed quilt and it's all for ME!

After making it I discovered that it was larger than I had planned and that instead of it being a lap quilt size it was almost a queen quilt size.  I've had plans to make a quilt to go on my bed this summer to replace my heavy comforter during the warm months and so I decided that by tweaking this quilt a little I could have a new bed quilt.

I ended up adding some sashing around the outside of the stacked coins.  A sash of dark blue about 4 inches wide and then a wider sash of white, and then bind it in the dark blue.  Since I wanted it light I used a cotton batting, and since it's a bed quilt for MY bed I didn't want to do anything too fancy for a backing.  I ended up deciding to use a sheet, and since my husband and I rarely make the bed using a flat sheet I decided to just go ahead and buy a new sheet set that I could use the flat sheet as backing and use the fitted sheet and pillowcases on the bed.  I got my sheet set at Target.  It was the perfect color and is organic cotton so it's super soft.

I quilted it pretty sparsely.  I just did stitching-in-the-ditch around the sashing and up each row of stacked coins.  Because it's sparsely quilted the rows kind of poof up but when it's laying flat on a bed it's not noticable at all.  If I had a machine with a larger harp space I probably would have quilted it more densly, but it's hard to quilt a quilt that's 92" square on a machine with 4" of harp space.

 
Trying to get a good photo of it was a pretty awful task.  The quilt it so big that I was struggling to get it on the fence without dragging it through the wet grass.  I also took photos of it on the bed, but the lighting in my bedroom is so terrible that I had to spend a ton of time editing them in photoshop to get them to look remotely good.

I also tried to take a picture of the quilt folded on the ground, and that didn't work out so well..... This is what ended up happening:
 

These three photos were taken in quick succession.  As soon as I booted dog#1 off the quilt dog #2 moved onto it, and then dog#1 came back and they sat on it together.  Oh well, at least they're cute. 

New Fabric

The husband left to present at a conference in Denver yesterday and I had grand plans to spent the time he was away locked in my sewing room hammering out projects.

Instead I've been reading!  I've been so caught up in Game of Thrones that I haven't sewn a single thing yet.  To make it up to all of you who want to see pretty things I have pictures of my most recent fabric purchase from Connecting Threads!

This is my first time ordering from Connecting Threads and I was very pleased by the experience.  Their prices are so great, I got all this loot for $50!

Various yardage amounts of Bookish.  The main print and the book stamp print are great!

 Some Peppermint Forest to get ready for Christmas in July

 

A charm pack of all their colors of Classic Dots and Classic Dot yardage in black, ocean mist, coral reef, and orangina.

And a layer cake stack of their Matsuri collection.  I had no idea until it arrived that this collection is 100% Lawn Cotton.  At $7 a yard I'm going to need to go back and get yardage to make a few tops!  They also just came out with 4 new collections, Technicolor Tidings, Maple Skies, Sweet Saint Nick, and Circle of Family.  I'm loving Maple Skies and I might need to order some to make some fall decor for my house!

New 2226 Skirt

I have a new skirt that I finished just in time for church this morning.

Do you like it?

 

While this isn't my first time using the pattern this is my first time using organic cotton and to tell the truth I can't really tell the difference.  It's maybe a little softer than other cottons, but not by a whole lot.

Pattern: Simplicity 2226
Fabric: Free to Grow by Nancy Mims for Mod Green Pod for Robert Kaufman
Estimated cut time: 1 hour
Estimated sewing time: 3 hours

A Mens Wallet Tutorial

Today I have a tutorial for all of you!  (I'm not usually huge on making tutorials but I thought I'd give it a shot.  Any feedback you have for me on how I formatted my tutorial would be very appreciated!)

I always have a hard time figuring out what kind of things to make the guys in my life but one thing I always fall back on is my men's wallet.

Since Father's Day is right around the corner I thought everyone might appreciate a fun gift that takes less than a half hour to make.

Are you ready?

Before you get started here are my two cents:
Making this wallet is easiest when you use a double-sided fabric such as Duck canvas or solar umbrella cloth since you don't need to fuss with fusing a second piece onto the main piece (skip steps 2-5), but if you want to use a printed fabric you'll need to follow all steps.

I don't recommend using any fabric lighter than home decor weight cotton.  If you choose to use something lighter I heavily recommend using a fusible interfacing on the back side of the fabric to give it extra stiffness.

Ok, enough of my two cents.  Time to start making a wallet!

The finished wallet has two large pockets on the outside perfect for holding reciepts, business cards, or whatever a guy carries in his wallet.  The inside of the wallet has 4 slots for holding credit cards and IDs, and the top of the wallet opens with a space for holding cash.

This wallet is especially nice for guys who don't like having a big bulky wallet, and the way the cards are laid out allows the wallet to bend with the curve of a butt when a guy goes to sit down.

If anything in the tutorial is unclear please let me know and I'll fix it.  I hope you enjoy making this!




-Stephanie



p.s. I'm linking up this tutorial with a few linky parties.

Super Mario Bros QAL

I am SO looking forward to this one:

New York 241

Happy Monday!!!

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and dragged all my stuff and my camera outside and had a very successful photoshoot.

The thing I was most excited to photograph was my new bag.  I've been wanting to make a bag using Anna of Noodlehead's 241 Tote pattern for awhile and thought that my fun new New York print fabric would be perfect.

Ta-DA!  Here it is! My new New York 241 Tote.


Anna's pattern was really easy to follow.  I don't think I made any alterations to the pattern as I went.  Well, I made the inside pocket smaller than the directions called for, but it was only because I had a scrap that I wanted to use that was smaller than the size the pattern called for.


I really love this bag.  It's such a great shape and can hold a deceptive amount of stuff.


The inside is lined with a red polka dot.  I'm a sucker for polka dots.

I think I'm going to make myself a wallet to match using either the check book pattern from Amy Butler's Style Stitches or the 3 Layer Clutch from Gingercake Patterns.  Has anyone made either of these patterns?  Do you have any useful tips I should know about? Which do you think I should choose?



I'm entering this bag in the Summer Sewing Series at Ellison Lane Quilts as well as linking this post up with a few linky parties.


 I'm also super excited to mention the "Christmas in July" series starting up in the beginning of July over at Sew Festive Handmade.  I'm looking forward to making some Christmas decorations!!!

-Stephanie
 
p.s I just found out that there's another "Christmas in July" blog hop going on over at Don't Call Me Betsy

Failed Photoshoot + Follower Giveaway Winner

My sewing machine has been super busy over here and I've managed to crank out a few fun projects this week.  This morning I gathered up all the things I've made along with my camera and other essentials for a photoshoot (lint roller, scissors to snip missed threads, pin cushion) and trudged outside, only to discover that the sun had burst through the clouds earlier than normal and it was too bright to get a decent picture. 

So instead this will have to tide you over until I can get good photos.  A stack of all the goodies I made.

Before I get to the giveaway winner I want to mention one more thing: I have a sponsor!  I never quite knew how sponsorships really worked until I was contacted yesterday by a creative assistant for Michelle Patterns asking me if I wanted to be an affiliate.  Well of course I said yes, I've been in love with Michelle Patterns ever since it was Keyka Lou Patterns.  So now I have a button in my sidebar that takes you to Michelle Patterns and I get a small commission if you buy something through my link.

Well I was so excited after I got the email that I busted out Michelle's Basic Wallet sewing pattern and got sewing.  And that brings us to the follower giveaway!  I told you all two weeks ago in this post that I would soon do a follower giveaway with the winner drawn out of the people who publicly follow me through Google Friend Connect and those who commented on the post.

I drew the winner this morning and our winner was #173

Congratulations Shannon!  I messaged you, please email me back before next Friday June 15th.

And what did she win?  She won a wallet I made using Michelle's Basic Wallet Pattern.






I picked up the fun New York home dec fabric while I was at Joanns and I love it.  If you look closely at the picture of all the stuff I made this week you'll spot it in there as well.

-Stephanie