Doctor Who Along Block 16 Vashta Nerada

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

Ah yes! The library episode where we first get to meet River Song.  That was a creepy episode(s) ~ for me anyway.

Here is Doctor Who Along block 16 ~Vashta Nerada

Soma has designed her version to let you chose just how creepy (skully) you want to make it.
Download your pattern

Don't forget to post your finished block pics in the Flickr pool.

This is the last Doctor Who Block of the year. We will resume our Whovian sewing adventure in January.  In the meantime, I wish you all a happy holiday season and a happy new year!

Happy  Sewing!

Sewing in a winter wonderland

Yes it's snowy and white around here in the central Willamette Valley. Snow isn't really all that much of a surprise, but the staying power of it sure is! Not to mention the super low temps. As a result, we have had several snow days and that translates directly into sew days for yours truly.

I've been working away on some xmas gifts - can't show you those here just yet. But I've also been doing a little Christmas decorating.

Case in point.  When it was finally time to pull out the Christmas tablecloths it became woefully apparent that the old napkin basket was clashing horribly.  I could've just put it away for the season, but I had time so I whipped up a new one with a Christmas theme. The new one uses one of my all time favorite holiday fabrics from Alexander Henry called "retro Christmas". Sadly, I think it’s out of print now.  I fussy cut the side panels to show off the retro art work and paired it with a basic dot from Riley Blake.

Fabric baskets are super easy to construct. One of these days, I’ll even put together a little tutorial for all of you.  For now you can find a myriad of tutorials for them on the web.

Next up was a Christmas table runner.  I don’t have one yet and I thought it was high time I fixed that.  This one was exceedingly simple – I know it looks complicated but it was really wasn't.  The whole thing was could out with my Silhouette Cameo. Easy peasy.

Yes you can cut fabric with a die-cutter, you just need to iron on the double-sided fusible interfacing first and you need a fabric blade.  Otherwise, if you have a Silhouette already, you know the rest is simple.   Just iron the letters on and you are practically done.  You could (and should if it’s applique) sew around each of the letters to secure them). But I cheated and skipped that step since it really won’t get much wear or need much washing where it lives and I was in a hurry.  They are topstiched in place by the quilting as well.

That's all my holiday sewing for now. I still desperately need a tree skirt, but who knows if I'll get that done this year.

In the meantime, happy sewing!

 

Doctor Who Along block 15 River Song's diary

Welcome back Whovians!  Did everyone in the US have a nice thanksgiving weekend?

It's time for Block 15 of the Doctor Who Along.  I'm happy to say that this weeks block is one of the easiest of the quilt along.  Breathe a sigh of relief!

Download the pattern file here or on Craftsy.

Happy Sewing!

Doctor Who Along Block 14 - Hello Sweetie!

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

Can you believe we are already at block 14 of the Doctor Who Along? I can't.  It has sure flown by quickly.

Here is this weeks update.  From the design studio of Soma Acharya~ Whims and Fancies.

Hello Sweetie!

What Doctor Who quilt would be complete without a little of River Song's influence?

You can find the pattern here.

Happy Sewing!

Modern Maples in time for fall

Fresh out of the dryer and promptly put to use.  Here is my modern Maples quilt all done up.


I really wanted a quilt with fall-ish colors which are typically not the colors that I gravitate towards.  I do like to have fall decorations around the house this time of year, so it seemed appropriate to add in a fall quilt.

 Modern Maples seem to be all the rage this fall. Seems like everyone is making one of these and I was holding out for awhile until I came up with the fall colors idea.  So then I was off in search of the perfect background fabric which was pretty tough to find.

I ended up choosing a Kaufman Essex yarn-dyed linen in Olive of all colors.  I was really looking for more of a yarn-dyed brown linen which it turns out is exactly what the olive looks like in real life although the pictures make it look a little grey from the distance. So it was the perfect background fabric to pair with my fall colored leaves.  I used various FQs from my stash and assembled the leaf blocks. They are quite large, and since there is so much negative space in this quilt the whole thing ends up being quite large in the end. Which I would’ve known if I’ld read the directions, but you know me, I just dove in and paid no heed for directions.  So, in short, it’s a big quilt but that’s good for snuggling under right?  Case in point…

I also used up some stash fabric for the back, so it was a nice stash buster for me.

My quilting was sort of a freeform waves and spirals in sections. Doesn't really show up well on the pictures though. I used a gray-variegated thread which blended in nicely in most places.

Modern Maples was designed by the awesome Amanda Woodward-Jennings and can be found in the book Pretty in Patchwork Holidays.

That's it for today. Happy Sewing!

Doctor Who Along block 13 – Ood

Ah the gentle Ood ~ they have earned their place on this quilt don’t you think?

Here is block 13 in the  Doctor Who along

My Ood has red eyes as he's a bit possessed, but you might prefer a kinder, gentler, version...

Download the pattern here or get it on Craftsy.
Pattern is rated as intermediate in difficulty.

Additionally, Soma and I have decided to upload all the patterns on each others Craftsy pages, so you can find them all in one place more conveniently (well 2 places actuall). You can find my Craftsy homepage here.  I will be uploading all the patterns to my page in the next few days.

There are lots of great mashups on the flickr page of the blocks people have made so far. Go  check it out! There are going to be a lot of awesome quilts out there! 

Allons-y! 

Focusing on Fall

In Corvallis it has been a beautiful fall.  Lots of sunny crisp days and gorgeous red and golden hues on the trees.  I do love the colors of fall.  I have given in to the idea that summer is over and fall is upon us and I have been slowly transforming the house with fall décor.  My kids usually take care of the Halloween decorations outdoors, so I focused on decorating my mantle, my sewing room and my table.  

Here are a few of the projects I’ve been working on.

I have had cloth napkins for a while, so I finally made a storage box for them.
They were previously in a too-small bowl and sort of a wonky mostly tippy stack on the kitchen table which wasn’t very neat or pretty.  So I took care of that.  Now we have a nice neat way to store the napkins with easy tabletop access.

...And then there were the buntings.

 I made a bajillion of these and most of them went straight to Kari Bruck for her photography studio.  

 But while I was at it, I decided to make some fall and Halloween colored ones. The Halloween one is currently decorating my mantel and another is in my sewing room.

    

The fall ones will go up in November. But  I did manage to give them a test run at a bake sale that my daughter organized.  I love these colors and they spruced up the tent nicely.

Next up was a thanksgiving tablecloth. Not that we needed one just yet, but I’m trying to get a jump on things this year as we will actually be having family over for dinner.  So I dug through the stash, and found this lovely home dec weight fabric by Valori Wells, one of my all time fave lines from her.  Perfect for a tablecloth.  Added some bias binding and voila – a new fall-colored table cloth.  

And as if that wasn’t enough, I finally made myself an apron. Every year at thanksgiving or Christmas as I’m semi-dressed nice and dishing out the last minute fixings, I lament the fact that I don’t have anything to protect my clothes.  Every. Year! No more, I am finally ahead of the game and made myself a pretty little apron.


Pattern is from the book With Fabric and Thread, by Joanna Figueroa.  Such a cute pattern and pretty easy to make.   Plus it’s reversible which caters to my every changing mood.    I might make another one with a Christmas theme, if I can keep up this momentum.  Ha!

Happy Sewing!

Some exciting news to share

So, this little book will be debuting at quilt market in Houston this week

I'm so thrilled to share this news finally.   Playful little paper pieced projects
from  C&T Publishing.

It was compiled by the lovely Tacha Brucher and I'm excited to announce that I have a project in that book. This is pretty big news for me.  I haven't done a book project before, so it was pretty exciting stuff.

If you peek inside amazon's page you'll see my sewing machine cover on the table of contents page.  

The book is available for pre-order on Amazon and will hit the shelves in bookstores in January.  I'll post more when it's closer to release date including some pics of my project and some exciting giveaways.

Stay tuned.  Happy Sewing!

Doctor Who Along Block 12 Gallifrey

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

How about a visit to the home planet? It's time for Doctor Who Along block 12 ~ Gallifrey.  Home of the time lords.

This block was designed by Soma and you can find the pattern on her blog.
Here is my version of the block.

You can visit the Doctor.Who.Along group on Flickr for lots of inspiration, sewing support and chat.


Happy Sewing!

Doctor Who Along block 11 Striped Scarf

In this weeks installment of the Doctor Who Along, we have "4th Doctor" Tom Baker's striped scarf. Remember that scarf? To say it was long would be an understatement. It always seemed to come to the rescue when needed and somehow magically never managed to get caught on anything - or did it? It's been awhile. Tom Baker was the Doctor that started me on the series in the beginning. I was still a kid back then - hard to believe I know. The special effects in those days were laughable at best, but somehow the show had a charm that made you look beyond all the cheese.

So I present to you, the 11th foundation block for the Doctor.Who.Along - the striped scarf. Make it in whatever colors you choose. I chose to stick close to the original colors. Another Constellations fabric print for the background. Perfect I tell you! Thank-you Miss Lizzie House!


Link to Pattern and Instructions here and on Craftsy.

I hope you enjoy sewing it, it's one of the easier blocks in the QAL. The 11th block means we are more than halfway through this QAL!

Allons-y!

Doctor Who Along Block 10 ~ Dalek

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

You love to hate 'em - the Daleks! Arch Nemesis of the Doctor.  From their glorified trash can/toilet plunger beginnings, to the high tech laser beamed killers of today, you can always count on them to show up at just the wrong moment.  Luckily the good Doctor always manages to outwit them.

You can have your very own Dalek up close and personal, minus the laser beams and scary looking spinny things.

This block was designed by Soma and it's fun to piece.  The Doctor Who block you've been waiting for.

You can download the pattern and instructions here.

Don't forget to post your finished block pics in the Flickr pool. 

Happy Sewing! 

Prepping for the summit

No no, I'm not climbing Everest - or even South Sister, but I am getting ready to attend Sewing Summit 13 in Salt Lake City.  It's a 3 day sewing and blogging conference. 

I'm looking foward to making new friends, sewing with my fellow sewing geeks, learning some new things and having a great time. Full report will follow upon my return.

In the meantime, I've been prepping class supplies and patterns and figuring out what to sew in the evenings from my laundry list of things still to be done.  Oh and sewing a bit in preparation.  I have these new mail pouches to show off, an update from last years linen version.


 

I just had to use this Dear Stella fabric - I totally remember this plaid print on a cooler we had when I was a kid.  Love it! 

Airmail anyone?
 

If you are attending sewing summit, you just might get yourself a little pouch. Just maybe.  Or possibly some other little sewn goodies. Just sayin'.  I'll have a little bit-o-swag to give away.

And since this is a sewing summit, there will of course be a swap - to my partner - you will be receiving this hexie pouch - whoever you are - you'll just have to wait until Thursday to find out!

Finally, since no sewing conference is complete without some hand-sewn garmentry - time constraints have forced me to settle for this hand made infinity scarf.  It's the best I could do but I really like how it turned out - I really should make more of these.  This project took all of around 20 minutes to sew. 

If you are attending SS13, let me know and I'll look forward to meeting up with you.  We might just sew up some scarves while we are there.  (in that case you'll need around 15" wide cut of  2 different voile prints x WOF or 28-30" of one print).


Happy Sewing!


  

Sewing without paper

Yes, my friends, the following blog post involves some sewing projects that have nothing to do with foundation piecing! It's true! I bet you thought it would never happen again. Truth be told I'm getting kinda tired of all the paper piecing myself and thought I would share a little recreational sewing - a just for fun kind of thing. A novelty to be sure.

I have made a few of these Divided baskets recently from a pattern by Anna Graham (Noodlehead) . This basket whipped up super fast and easy. This is really a fun pattern - so much so I wanted to make a couple more after this first one was done.

Also I needed a 'Fall' themed swap item for this month CMQG guild meeting so I decided to make an extra one. This one seems fallish no?

And finally, ok ok some paper was involved.  I wanted to make this one all scrappy but with hexies.  So I employed some English paper piecing ( a little different from Foundation piecing) on the pocket portion of the last basket.

This one is going to be my new knitting basket ~  by the fireside ~ one day when it's cold and rainy again, not 90 like it is right now.  It has all my favorite fabrics.  Marmalade and Scrumptious (thank-you Amanda) by Camille Roskelley are playing well with Lakehouse (Holly Holderman) and other fabrics (by Tasha Horsley) and the natural linen.

Turns out, mini-charm packs are perfect for 1" hexies ~ just a public service announcement for your information.

The last too are missing the divider on purpose.  I found I needed a larger basket more than a divided one.The cotton webbing for the handles is an acquisition from my visit to Bolt during the MQG meet-up in Portland last month. 

And that's all for today folks.  Happy Sewing!

Delete or Upgrade? Are you compatible? Doctor who Along block 9

It's time for the Doctor Who Along block 9.

Can you guess what it is?


It's the Cybermen.  Always showing up en masse and ready to delete anyone who runs.

You can have your very own Cyberman to adorn your quilt.

The block pattern can be found here or through the Craftsy website.

Here is the finished block.  Once again Miss Lizzy House's Constellations fabric are just a perfect background.

As always please share your finished creations on the Flickr Doctor.Who.Along pool or view for lots of inspiration and sewing help.

Cyberman is an intermediate block and a lot easier than last weeks, so you can take a breather.

Happy Sewing!

Summertime sew-cializing

Where to begin? I've been such a bad blogger lately.  Sew many projects have come and gone i hardly know where to begin.

Let's start at the end and work backward.  The most exciting sewing event of the summer was the Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild meetup which took place this past weekend in Portland.

What a blast!! That's my synopsis, but here's the long version.


The girls of the Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild  (yes there is one now!!) headed up on Friday.  We started with sewing classes at Modern Domestic.  I took the binding class with Heather which was very interesting and I would dearly love me a binder attachment - hello Santa are you listening.

Next up was a Publishing class with Susan Beal - super informative - the best class of the day for me personally.  Thanks again miss Susan!

Finally, there was FMQ class with Christina   - she's the best teacher and the sweetest gal! A totally low key, do your own thing, no rules,  go for it lady - totally my kinda gal.  Plus she has the best FMQ patterns I've seen - and I got a peek a her new book - which was awesome! I am totally going to buy it.  Love her designs.

CMQG Girls ready for FMQ class

My practice FMQ

In between all that learning, we were socializing with other MQG members from the PNW.   It was a blast. I got to meet so many bloggers in person which was totally cool (hello Sonja!) and lots of new-to-me bloggers as well. Of course Portland is ripe with famous fabric-y/quilty peeps (Violet Craft, Mo Bedell, Monica Solorio-Snow, Jen Carlton-Bailly). I can go on and on, but I shouldn't be all name-droppering – so I’ll stop.  It was still pretty rad though ;)    

CMQG Banner quilt on the wall at Modern Domestic

Modern Domestic is the best sewing studio.  If you’ve never been go check it out next time you are in P-town.  Way ultra modern and hip and oh yeah, there are cool modern quilts on the wall. But if you are more of a garment sewer then that is the place for you, since that is their focus – or so I learned. 

Anyway, I can go on and on but yeah it was a way cool experience.

So then we did a bit of socializing and a bit of shopping while socializing and some eating and drinking and socializing ~ you get the gist!  And as if that wasn't enough - there was a cool tote bag swap. 

Jane Market Bag I made for swap

And pouch

This was sponsored by Robert Kaufman who supplied the denim chambray to all the MQG's.  My tote went to Kim  and this lovely tote (below) is the one I picked, made by Jennifer of the PMQG.  I love this thing.  It's currently going to work with me everyday 'cause it's just the right size to throw all my random stuff into. 

Fun times.  I tell you.

CMQG Members, Christina, Lisa, Connie and myself.

Saturday we had the choice to go to a charity sew event at Modern Domestic or all day sew at Fabric Depot.  So some of us Corvallis gals headed to the Charity sew event and proceeded to make lots of urban chicken blocks (designed by PMQG Leader Michelle).  Very fun block and easy to sew.

Here's what the quilt blocks looked like when we left:

After lunch and maybe a little bit of shopping at Bolt, maybe, we headed off to Fabric Depot for the open sew, where we proceeded to chat and socialize and oh yeah, maybe sew a bit and possibly some more shopping, possibly.   Whereupon I managed to win a little goody bag from Fabric Depot. "Way cool!" I said – "I never win anything I said".  Ha ha ha ha ha.    I laugh because as Jessica (EMQG) pointed out, for a girl who never wins anything, I struck gold.  At the end of the sew day, guess whose name was chosen to win the baby lock machine they were giving away? Yup, it was yours truly.  So I guess I can’t say I never win anything.  Crazy I tell you.  And apparently after that there was some goodie bag fabric from Bolt that I won after I left.  Yea, I struck gold.  I should've bought a lottery ticket - why didn't I?  My apologies to all the meet-up attendees that were disappointed - you can still cross your fingers for the Bernina they are giving away. 

Introducing Molly ~ 

Montevilla Sewing Center , PMQG, Fabric Depot and whoever else was involved, I thank you over and over again.


Finally, it was time for dinner at Cartopia on Hawthorne and I headed home to my peaceful dwelling.
That's my wild sewing adventure for this summer!


Happy  Sewing!!!

Doctor Who Along Block 8 ~ Weeping Angel

PLEASE NOTE – these patterns have been removed are no longer available

Are you ready for block 8 of the Doctor.Who.Along? It's a Weeping Angel. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, either way they're scary. This one is at least weeping so we don't have to see the scary angel face staring at us from our quilt! Ha!

Soma designed this block and it comes in 2 formats depending upon your skill level. We realize that some of the blocks in the Doctor.Who.Along are very challenging. This one ranks among the toughest in the QAL for sure - if the angel has you scared in more than one department, try the easier block. If you are up for a challenge, go for the harder one. Either way, you'll end up with a cool new block for your quilt or project

Pattern and instructions available HERE.   Don't forget to share your finished blocks in the Flickr pool.  Doctor.Who.Along



Happy Sewing!!