My Sewing Room + Birthday Fabric

Today I thought we'd take a look into my sewing room!

I'm super lucky to have my own space in our home for sewing.  When my husband and I moved a little over a year ago we knew that we would need 3 bedrooms: one for us, one for an office for him (he's in the process of writing his PhD dissertation so he's in there a lot) and one for a sewing room for me.  Last week was my 27th birthday and as a gift he made me a new sewing table, so I thought I'd show it off, and while I was at it, why not show off the while room?

New Sewing Table and Ironing Dresser

Sewing Tables

The table on the right is the new table and it measures 8'x3', the table on the left was a graduation gift from my husband and it measures 7'x2'.  He hasn't had time to do it yet but the plan is for him to drop down my sewing machine into the table so it's flush with the tabletop.  That way it will be SO much easier to quilt on.

Tower with scraps, Supplies Shelf, and Dressform

Desk and Dressform

Fabric bookshelf!

A Peek into the Closet

I also got some yummy fabric!

Yummy Fabric from Purl Soho

30's Reproduction fabric from Aunt Barbara

Fabric from Beckah

Knit Cowl from Beckah

The stash stack fabric wasn't for my birthday, but I thought I'd show it off anyways since it's so pretty.

September Stash Stack Fabric

EDIT: Just in case you were wondering, the ballerina painting above my sewing tables was painted for me by my sister Jen when I graduated college, and the dog portrait over my dressform is a portrait of my dog Davey painted by my mom as a birthday present last year.

Patchwork Camera Bag

Happy Tuesday everyone! Here it is, the big reveal of my most recent "big project".

For my aunt's birthday she requested that I make her a camera bag.  I of course thought, "Hey, no problem, I've already made this camera bag, I'll just make one for her using the same pattern.  Easy-peasey"...  WRONG.

The problem was that my aunt wanted a bag big enough for both her large DSLR and an extra lens, and the largest size in the pattern from Michelle Patterns that I used to make my padded camera pouch is nowhere near big enough to hold her camera let alone the extra lens.  Okay, I had to scrap the idea to use the pattern... instead I decided to make my own.

For years before I became a serious sewist I made up all of my own bag patterns, and believe me, they were functional but not pretty.  Over the last few years though since I've been serious about my sewing I've picked up lots of new tricks and I wanted to use them to make this camera bag.

 Here was the check list of features I wanted the bag to include:
-lots of padding
-structured
-zippered pocket for phone/wallet
-side pocket
-top flap
-adjustable strap
-divided interior

I actually managed to get all of the things on my checklist done except for the adjustable strap.  I couldn't find any hardware locally for the strap so instead I just made it a fixed length.

 For fabric I went with a line I knew she would love, Good Fortune by Kate Spain, which I had a charm pack of as well as some fat eighths I bought from Bloomerie Fabrics.  For the lining I used a solid purple that I had laying around.

 I cut each charm in quarters and then arranged them to make a patchwork exterior.  I kept the quilting very simple and just straight-line quilted 1/4 inch from each seam on the patchwork.  For the bottom I faked the patchwork quilting since I used a solid piece of fabric for the base instead of making it patchwork.

Base of Bag

To make my bag both super padded and structured I used two different Pellon products: Pellon 71F ultra firm stabilizer and Pellon thermolam plus.  I actually used three layers of the thermolam to get all the padding I wanted, and one layer of the ultra firm stabilizer between the thermolam layers to add stiffness.  I thought it might be too much for my sewing machine needle to get through but it sewed through all the layers like a champ.

To make the bag a little more special I did a little embroidery in the flap.  I used one of the prints from Good Fortune as inspiration and drafted my own pattern on the flap and then embroidered it using perle cottons.  It's kind of hard to see in the pictures since the patchwork background is so busy but I think it adds a graceful touch to the bag.

Detail of Embroidery on Bag

Zippered Pocket

On the back of the bag I put in a zippered pocket.  I actually made a mistake putting it in and cut the hole for the zipper too wide, so in the end I had to struggle to get the zipper secure since it was almost too narrow for the hole I made for it.

Open Zippered POcket

To add to the security of the camera bag in addition to having a flap I also made a drawstring closure to keep the camera in the bag.  I used a technique very sililar to the one described by Michelle in her padded camera pouch pattern but altered to fit the dimensions of my bag.

Drawstring Closure

I also added fabric to the end of the drawstring for a little extra decoration and also to hide the knots at the ends of the rope.

The side pocket is also the perfect size to hold a lens cap or possibly even a map or phone.

Side Pocket

And last but not least the inside!  I made a padded divider to go inside the camera bag so that the camera and the extra lens don't bump into each other when they're in the bag.  I had to take this phot with my small point and shoot because as you can see in the picture, my normal camera is in the bag!

Divided Interior

I truly, honestly, love this bag.  It was pretty difficult to part with.

To be honest, I've been wanting to make a camera bag for my own DSLR + extra lens for a while now and just haven't made the plunge, so making one as a gift to kind of "test the waters" has been great.  Now I just need to find the time and the perfect fabric so I can make one for myself hopefully before Sewing Summit next month **fingers crossed**.

Juggling Summer Table Runner for Mom

August 15th is my mom's birthday and every year I like to make her birthday gift.  She just received the package and opened it so now I can finally post about it!

This year I saw this project by Bari J and I loved the pieced pattern and thought it would be perfect for a project for my mom.  I sent my mom a bunch of photos of fabric collections (at least 24 different ones) and had her pick which line was her favorite.  She picked Juggling Summer by Zen Chic for Moda and when the jelly roll arrived I knew it was perfect for my mom.  The colors and prints in the collection are beautiful, and the main fabric of the collection has this yummy red/orange color that is exactly my mom's color.

I had a lot of fun making the table runner.  I lucked out and noticed on the blog post by Bari J that someone mentioned that you can use a quilter's binding tool as a template to make the friendship braid instead of having to measure and cut the angles.  (You can see a video demo here).  I happen to have a quilter's binding tool so that made the process smooth and easy.  I'm not sure how many I cut, but I definitely didn't use the whole jelly roll.  In actuality I probably only used 1/2 of the jelly roll.

For the backing of the table runner I bought 1 1/2 yards of Moda Bella Solid in Betty Orange (which coordinated exactly with the collection- thanks Moda!).  The orange also happens to be the yummy red/orange color that I mentioned is my mom's color, so it worked out perfectly.

I free-motion quilted it using the "geometric allover" pattern as described by Angela Walters in her book "Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters" (which I am LOVING by the way).  It was simple and I was able to get into the flow of doing it relatively easily.

As a bonus gift I also made a set of 6 coasters to go with the runner.  I used some of the scraps from the table runner and the Betty Orange for the back of these.  Since I didn't want to fuss with binding I made these by sewing the top and bottom of the coasters right sides together with a layer of batting on the bottom of the stack (so it went batting, coaster bottom RSU, coaster top WSU) and then turned them right sides out and hand stitched the opening closed.

For the quilting on the coasters I did the same "geometric allover" pattern on them and loved the way they turned out.

I also made my mom a set of "Cool Downs" for her to use in the hot Tennessee sun.  One with two of the leftover strips from the jelly roll and one in the same gnome print I used in the tutorial.  "Cool Downs' are new to her so I hope she enjoys using them!

A Birthday Quilt for Harriet

For my Mother in Law's birthday this year we celebrated by joining her on a camping trip and having a small family birthday party at the campgrounds.  She has a membership to a campground up in the desert above Banning, California that she stores her camper at so that's where we went.

It was very hot up in the desert in July (who would have ever thought so?) so we spend a lot of time in the camper playing cards and relaxing.  Well, we would have been playing cards no matter what the weather was like- that's what our family does- we play cards for money.  Not much money, none of us are rich or are big into gambling, normally at the end of the day if you've been having a good day your up 20 cents.  That kind of gambling.

Anyways I've been wanting to make her a quilt for her birthday, so that's what I did.

Quilt Front

The pattern is a free one from Elizabeth Hartman called New Waves and I made it in the lap size.  I made a smaller version earlier this month using boy fabrics, you can see that post here, and the pattern can be found here.  

Detail of quilt front

 All the fabrics were ones I picked out on a shopping trip at M&L.  I started with the red batik four rows down in the quilt and then built all the other fabrics around it.  I almost didn't want to give it to her I loved it so much.

Quilt back

I quilted it pretty simply since it was a large quilt and I didn't want it to take forever.  I started by quilting lines 1/4 inch above and below each seam.  I loved the way it looked so I left it at that.  It's bound in Kona coal.

Patchwork on back

For the backing I used a purple print that I loved but thought didn't work well on the front.  I did a little patchwork for the back and included one of each of the prints on a strip to break up the huge expanse of purple.

 

Birthday message

And of course I included a message for her on the quilt back so she always remembers who she got it from and for what occasion.

I still have a lot of the fabrics left so I'm thinking I might make myself something fun.  I could probably make a mini quilt to go in my sewing room, or possibly something for the house like a tablerunner with matching napkins.  Oh the possibilities!

Birthday Weekend!!!

This weekend we celebrated my love's 28th birthday with a small family party at our house.  The guest list was small, just my love and I and some of his family, but that didn't stop me from trying to make it a beautiful birthday.

A few days before the party I was inspired by a paper banner I saw on the Joyful website and decided to make one for Granite's birthday as well.  I have a stack of paper I bought at the craft store over a year ago that was perfect for the job, and armed with my scissors, paper, and cricut machine I set about to make a birthday surprise.

I was very pleased with the way it came out, and because I used push pins to hang it it was very easy for me to take it down and wait until the last minute to re-hang it so it was indeed a surprise.

Another thing I did for the party that was inspired by the joyful website party was I wrapped all the utensil sets with napkins and secured them with a band of the paper to tie it in.  I had also wanted to make the little toothpick flags that was on the website but nothing on the menu for the day required toothpicks.

Speaking of the menu, for his special day my love had:

Grilled salmon with mustard dill sauce

Blue cheese with candied walnuts and raspberries salad

Mushroom rissotto

Waldorf salad

Dill biscuits

Fresh squeezed lemonade with mint leaves

Sun tea

And for dessert I made him a vegan fresh fruit tart:

 

I did a few other little things to freshen the house up a bit.  One of them was that I stopped by Trader Joes and picked up a bunch of irises to have on the table.  I also covered the lid of our tea dispenser with a square of linen and secured it with a ribbon.  Not only did it look pretty, but it disguised the fact that the lid of our tea dispenser is a bright purple plastic, and not very pretty.

 

All in all the party was very fun and I had a great time with the family.  But probably the best thing about the party?  It was relatively stress-free! (though I do have to admit, I have yet to wash the dishes)