(almost) Friday Finish

Remember this random red and aqua quilt which I started for no particular reason other than I felt like it? The top is finally finished after having started it a couple of months ago. I really don't like projects hanging around like this. I'm always worried they'll end up in project purgatory, so I'm glad the top is done.

The quilting will be next but since that's my favorite part, it won't take long as long as I can carve out some time in the schedule. Famous last words, right?

As it turned out, It was quite a bit of work to piece all those strips together since I needed 80 of them and that was only half the work for the block. I like how it came together though. It's been named the Stepping Stones quilt by my son.
Appropriate I think since it will live on the patio in the summer.


Happy Sewing!

My turn....UHG Swap

Check out these fantabulous goodies from my UHG Swap partner, JenniferLGB.

Didn't she do a great job? These Orla Kiely inspired placemats are so perfectly suited to my tastes - I really love that design and I love Jennifer's execution. The colors are perfect for our home and, well, I just love them all the way around. She even made matching napkins and coasters! ACK I love it all.



You can't really tell from the pictures, but the cream fabric is linen - which totally lends a luxurious feel to the whole set! If I haven't said it enough, I'm pretty smitten!

She even included a couple of pieces of Amy Butler fabric - I've already commandeered the pink one for the next project ;)
Thank-you Jennifer! You totally had me pegged. And thanks again to Heather , Kerri and their many swap helpers (who I can't name) for running another awesome swap! You ladies rock!

Happy Sewing!

Urban Home Goods Swap goodies

As you may know, I have been stuck on participating in Flickr based Swaps for the last few months. It has been a blast and I have met many wonderful sewists and crafters. This latest completion is for the Urban Home Goods Swap, round 2. As the name suggests, the range of items to make is pretty wide open. My partner gavemany specific suggestions, but still left the range pretty wide. So after stalking her a bit, I decided on this little set of goodies.My partner knits, and had suggested a knitting needle case among other things, so I decided a knitting set would be in order.

I designed this bag specifically with the knitter in mind.

It's large enough for a single project to take on the go. Long enough so that straight needles will fit in the bottom plus there is some extra room for the pouch.

My knitting bag always has lots of little things like darning needles, rulers and snips floating around in the bottom. So I thought a little pouch to contain all those things might be useful.

To be honest, I could really use a new knitting bag myself - my current bag is about 15 years old and is really a gardening bag that I re-purposed. So it's with some reluctance that I am sending this one off to my partner.

I used colors that my partner likes and paired that with some linen for a modern feel. Fabrics include Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom, Sis boom basics, Amy Butler prints, Joel Dewberry, Anna Maria Horner and Michael Miller's antiquities, all paired with natural linen. I added a little quilting on the linen to tie things together.

I really love the bag, I'm going to make myself one, one of these days. The flower on the front adds the finishing touch and I used this tutorial from sewritsytitsy . Love this flower - I'm going to have to find an excuse to make myself a few more...

The knitting needle case was made following the same directions as the case in the last post. I think it all comes together for a fun set.

I hope you like it partner, because it should be in your neck of the woods any moment now!

Happy Sewing!

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Check out my kiddo's new quilt in action ~ yeah she has a rough life. This is how I found her out in the yard enjoying the last warm summer days. When I offered to feed her grapes she took me up on it! Ha - silly girl. She had to settle for sliced apple, she can feed herself though. What a life!

And new Bliss yardage in the house, I so love this fabric and had to gobble some up as soon as it was out. It's fabric in search of a project...

Happy Sewing!

A Visit to the Royal Ontario Museum

A few weeks ago, I took the kids on a trip to visit my hometown of Toronto. My parents still live there, so it was a fun trip filled with family, old friends and a little sightseeing. We spent one day at the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto, locally known as the ROM. The Chinese Clay Warriors were on display there but the kids were more impressed by the many giant dinosaur skeletons and natural history displays.

Us 3 girls, my mom, my daughter and I, managed to sneak away for a bit to visit the textile display up on the top floor. There were many wonderful handmade items. Some, like the clothes, were quite old.


Full of incredible detailing...
I am so glad I never had to dress like this. And an obligatory shoe pic, just because, well, it's shoes! Need I say more?

The quilts were pretty impressive especially when you consider that these were made prior to the days of sewing machines - I shudder to think about the hours involved in all that hand sewing.


There were plenty of modern textile examples as well....




Ah yes, Marimekko! Love it! A fun trip into textile history.

Happy Sewing!

Stick sleeve

I have been doing a little holiday weekend sewing. I'm working on my super secret Urban Home goods swap stuff for my secret partner. That's still hush hush for the moment.



While I was doing that I decided to make up a knitting needle case for myself. I used the tute over at multicrafty.


I have been meaning to make one of these for years. My current needle case has long since been outstripped by my needles. So now I have one that fits all the straight needles. I used fabrics from Kelly at Banana Showcase and the Stitch n Lounge. I love these fabrics and was so happy to see how well they matched when they arrived. I used some Meadowsweet II from Sandi Henderson and paired it with Farmdale from Alexander Henry.

I even made a little pouch to put in all those little knitting supplies that usually troll around in the bottom of my knitting bag.


Speaking of knitting bags, that one's next on my list. I really need to replace the ancient gardening bag I have been using as a knitting bag for the last decade.

Happy Sewing!

ORBC Quilt-along finish!

A while back, in this post, I laid out the plans for my own version of the hexagon quilt led by Julie (Jaybird quilts) and the Old Red barn Co.



The hexagon quilt is finally finished. It has been pieced for awhile, but last month in the blazing heat I finally managed to stitch up a quilt back and this past week I finally got it quilted and bound.
I am totally loving the end result. The colors are speaking to me, so cool and calming and well, blue is my favorite color anyway, so it was hard to go wrong here.

After much debate on the final layout, I decided to go with the pointed edges following the hexagon lines and I really like the result. Usually when I design a quilt, I have the end product in my mind, so it was a bit strange to have all these blocks made and then figure out how to put them together. I think this layout works ok though.

Sewing on the binding was a bit slower because of all those points, but not too bad. This one has already been claimed by my daughter ~ no surprise there ~ green and aqua are her favorite colors.

The fabrics in this quilt are from all over and include Sandi Henderson, Heather Bailey, Valori Wells, Patty Young, Paula Prass, Tula Pink, and others.

I decided to venture out from random stipple quilting and quilt on this curvy leaf pattern. Not sure how much i'm loving this approach really. It was a LOT of work and i'm not sure it was worth it really. It looks okay but you can't really see it well on this type of quilt. Probably would've worked better on a quilt with more solid fabrics. Live and learn.


That’s the 3rd quilt finish this summer – phew!

Happy Sewing!