Summer stitching projects

I've finished a few sewing projects this summer.

First up: This drawstring backpack and matching zippy pouch

for my cute little cousin Audrey, who turns 3 next week.

The zipper bag is only four inches by three inches

and the backpack is definitely toddler-sized.

I used coordinating corduroy prints from baby garments I made 20 years ago.

Yup, I've kept these fabrics for two decades.

I sewed a zipper to the top of the pink pocket and then sewed twill tape on that,

and attached that to the green fabric.

My pile of hexies is growing.

I started hand sewing them in the Rockies two months ago

now I have about 50 or so.

Here are the backs.

I've used a lot of Kaffe prints, some hand dyed fabrics

and that yellow/orange white Liberty print.

Here's more of that Liberty print in this table square.

I got a Liberty of London blouse from a friend, who also passed on fabric in the linen borders.

I put that all together with a doily from the thrift shop

to make a pad for a hot tea pot

which will be covered by this tea cozy.

Star Trek quote on one side

And Liberty print on the other.

If you look closely, you can see the original Liberty tag 

on the bottom left of the tea cozy.

I used the padding from a discarded ironing board cover

for the batting, using up scraps of bits and pieces inside and out.

Earlier this summer, Sherri Lynn Wood put out a challenge to make quilts

out of found materials, and I think this one works as part of her

#makedochallenge she's currently running on Instagram and on her blog.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers at

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF

Crazy Mom Quilts.

Scrappy Dresdens for Blogger's Quilt Festival

Scrappy Dresdens, 43 by 60 inches

machine pieced, machine and hand quilted

 

My entry is a long-time quilt in process and used my own scraps

and fabrics sent to me by blogging friends.

I had made Dresdens in three sizes, some round, some pointed,

and didn't want to put them on squares, and then into a quilt.

 

So I went with a random approach, scattering them on the front of quilt,

and even cutting some of them so they moved off the edge.

 

 I appliqued the Dresdens  by machine onto a quilt sandwich

with yellow on the front, and grey on the back,

quilting and appliquing in one go.

 

I hand appliqued the centre circles,

and used as many prints as possible,

on the theory that more is more

(and that the yellow background would calm it down.)

 

T

I also used perle cotton in big stitches to outline the shapes and provide more texture

on both sides.

The stitching shows up on the grey back with peppermint insert

so it's a two-sided quilt.

 

It's destined to be a Christmas gift for friends,

but I'm happy to share it with you here first.

 

I'm linking up with Amy at Blogger's Quilt Festival.

 

 

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I've got finishes for Friday!

I'm happy to say I've finished some projects that have been lying around my house.

This scrappy Dresden was supposed to be a fast quilt

since I appliqued and quilted the plates in one go.

Here's the back -- I like the feature strip in it

and how the handquilting shows on this side.

I ended up big stitching around and in the Dresdens,

so what was supposed to be a quick quilt

stretched out to nearly a year

not counting the time to piece the Dresdens.

Here's another long work-in-progress,

finally finished and gifted

and already much loved and appreciated by A.

Note the purple and black quilted hanging in the top right

which I made for my church five years ago.

Here's A. with a view of the other side.

and one more finish for Friday, already used as a prize earlier this week.

Yes, that makes three finished in the last week or so.

I don't plan on keeping up the pace for the rest of the fall, but I'll enjoy it for now.

I'm linking up with Amandajean's Finish it up Fridays.

Centering the dresdens

I've been working on this scrappy Dresden for years.

Three years ago when I was recovering from surgery,

I started cutting blades

and putting together plates.

Last November, I started machine stitching them to a yellow background

appliquing and quilting them at the same time.

Now I just need to hand stitch the middle circles down.

but are they too  busy?

Would they look better with solid centres?

I used up some DS fabrics I won in a giveaway.

I'm second guessing myself as I near the finish line with this quilt.

This is the back -- a Kona ashe with a peppermint inset

and all the hand and machine stitching from the front.

I'm linking up with Sarah today.

Cooking up a storm at the sewing machine

Dresden plate quilt in the quilting stage. Just the middle circles left to applique.

letters, jelly roll races, and a bunch more

Last weekend at the quilt retreat, I worked on several projects,

including this scrappy Dresden.

Instead of appliquing each one to a background square and joining the squares,

I basted the background and backing to a fusible batting,

and then machine appliqued the plates.

It's a bit further along than in this photo, but you get the idea.

I also finished the letters for this word quilt made from word fabric.

It's a Latin phrase by St. Anselm which means

faith seeking understanding.

Because the last word is so long, I was trying to fill up the empty space in the first row.

Initially, I made a low contrast cross to fill the space,

and then I changed my mind and altered the cross to become an "f"

It's still low contrast, but now it has the sense of an illuminated manuscript

from medieval times, so I bought an embroidery hoop and some gold floss

and I'm going to embellish the letter and the background.

Stay tuned for how that turns out.

Initially, I thought a piano key border using the dark word fabrics would work

but it just looks too cute and bubblegummy for me, so I'm looking for other options.

Some of the other quilters had raced their jelly rolls already, and the quilter at the left

put her top together on the weekend.

I like the scrappy look, but I'm thinking one doesn't need a jelly roll to make a quilt like this.

More eye candy: lots of batiks (I think 40) went into this lovely.

A show and tell piece with loads of hand stitching in the embroidery, applique, and quilting.

Another lovely -- a four-patch, nine-patch variation.

Another jelly roll quilt, with flowers and insects made with Go Baby! dies

This is a baby quilt, but not made by Go. All the flowers are hand appliqued to a muslin,

then outlined in perle cotton in a big stitch.\

The border is wavy, but the binding isn't finished, so it's hard to see here.

This one is very fun in person.

Liberated plates

I began the new year in the sewing room, putting together this little quilt (8 by 10) from scraps of the Dresdens. I used the dozens of triangles left from cutting the blades, about an inch at the widest part, to make a string quilt for the Liberated quilts challenge for AAQI. I had resolutely thrown all these scraps out, thinking they were too small, but fished them out of the garbage and made a little quilt with about 100 little strings. It is quite stiff because of all the seam allowances, but isn't it fun? I used a b/w Mark Lipinski print for the back and binding. Thanks Clare and Michele for organizing this challenge.

Here it is in the midst of the Dresdens, which it matches nicely. These plates are addictive and I've been using three different templates with different numbers of blades. I've done some curves, some pointed, and some circular. I know that traditionally they're supposed to be each appliqued on a square, but I'm leaning toward a more organic layout and thinking of a phrase to go with them, something along a hospitality theme. How about: "We'll set a place for you?" or maybe these will become a set of placemats with a tablerunner. I'd like to eat my breakfast on one of these bright plates.

I'm really cooking now!

Actually, it's more like plating. Yesterday was my first free day from family obligations during the holidays, so I made Dresden Plates. I used various patterns I found on Google Images and just played with them. These are all machine sewn, but I hope to make some with the curved edge as well.

This one is finishing at 15 inches. I've been cutting into yardage for these -- some Kaffe Fassetts, some American Jane, some Mark Lipinski I'd been saving for no particular reason, and mixing them with other saturated colours and scraps. I have 21 different fabrics in this plate. Because of my haphazard way of cutting, I don't have equal amounts of anything, and really, cutting is the worst part of this exercise. I dutifully made a plastic template and outlined it with black marker, but I'm still cutting slices off the edges. Arrrggh!!

Here's four of the big ones -- they're all different but the fabrics overlap from plate to plate. I'm finding the really light and really dark blades stick out, so I'm trying to space them out evenly when I can. I'm loving the colours here.

These two use a different pattern and finish at 8.5 inches. The one at the right is from BumbleBeans  scrap bag that I won, and the left one is from my collection of 1930s reproductions. I have many more blades cut for this size, so I'm going to make more of these.  These have 14 blades instead of the 21 in the big ones.

Here's everything on my design wall -- spiderwebs and plates. I have a circular thing going right now. Now that I've cut into my yardage, the scraps will find their way into the last 9 spiderwebs I need. I'm only using already cut strings and scraps for this project, so I'm happy that those colourful Kaffes can be part of the spiderwebs. I also did a bit of shopping at the post-Christmas sales -- five metres of fun Christmas prints and fun additions to the stash. I used the Peanuts print to make a pillowcase as a belated Christmas gift. I like how the b/w print on the cuff mimics the snow on the Peanuts print.