Five Friday finishes

I made some pouches with this great Melody Miller typewriter print

in a linen/cotton blend.

It it trimmed with a wheat coloured linen and a handdyed cotton.

The back has the word Qwerty free motioned on it.

And I found another typewriter print in cotton for another set of pouches.

The back has the same grey and white typewriter keys as the trim on the front.

My mother is a long time quilter and teacher

but lately has been knitting more for her church's prayer shawl ministry.

She also cleaned out her stash to the bare minimum

so I gave it new life with a couple of quilt kits I put together.

The top was a sale price jelly roll paired with a half hexie ruler.

I put together this kit for her birthday last month.

I cut large HSTs with my Accuquilt Go cutter, which finish at 6 inches.

I had purchased the fabric months earlier for this purpose, but then stalled on the project.

These are bright, large prints, with 40 HST in each colour.

Two weeks later, she's sewn all the HST together 

and is now pondering designs.

I took this photo for everyone who asks me about waste from a die cutter.

This is what was left from four metres of fabric cut into half square triangles.

Some slivers and those 1.5 inch bits at the bottom.

Here is the completed log cabin top before the backing went on.

I quilted wavy diamonds on it with my walking foot .

I quilted it to a flannel backing at a recent sew-in,

and my partners-in-crime squared it off and trimmed it for me.

It is waiting for the perfect binding,

which ironically I may have to buy.

Everything else came from the scrap bin on this project.

I'm linking up with

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Friday Finishes

I've made some progress on long overdue projects.

First up is a baby quilt from solid flying geese 

originally intended for a double quilt for my son.

He got a double quilt recently from grandma

so I decided to sew these into two projects:

a baby quilt for a soon-to-be born neighbour

and a throw quilt for whatever.

I may be late for the baby, but I'm early for this wedding.

I combined a $7 package of denim rectangles

with some Jane Sassaman prints from the bargain bin

for a picnic and beach blanket.

That black patch pocket on the lower right is hiding a zippered pocket

perfect for stowing keys or a phone.

The wedding couple requested purple

and I like how that stripe frames the blanket,

Here's a shot of the two coordinating backing prints--

the stripes and yellow jackets on purple.

I'm not a fan of stinging insects,

but maybe these provide a little insurance against the real thing

during an upcoming picnic.

My friend Val suggested using an old pair of jeans

to make a tote bag for the blanket.

I threw in a set of four napkins from the wasp print

and the new owners loved it all.

Now they have pockets for water bottles and snacks

and a place to keep the blanket clean in the car trunk.

Here's some more repurposing:

I needed red for the back of a pillow for my niece

and I used the strip sets and fabrics left over

from the red and grey chevron quilt I pieced for a friend last year

and my friend Yvonne hand quilted.

This is the floating chevron quilt.

When I was making it, an older and thrifty quilting friend

was concerned I was wasting too much fabric

because there were leftover strips.

I assured her I would find a place for them

and now I did.

This is a better view of the hand quilting by Yvonne.

And this is the front of the pillow.

Kara's favourite colour is red

followed by black and white.

I figured I hit the mark on this one,

and I used up lots of black and white novelty prints

so there's an I Spy quality about it.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Twirling around here

Yesterday's work: transforming a metre of cotton and half a metre of tulle

into a little girl's twirly skirt.

And using up the leftovers to make a matching one for her doll.

I used one eight inch width of fabric for the top tier

and two for the bottom.

I edged the hem with four wof strips of tulle netting.

The skirt is so full it stands up by itself.

My favourite three-year-old wanted a skirt to dance in

and I hope this pink and purple ballet slipper skirt

meets her requirements.

I also turned some scraps of Christmas fabrics into potholders.

I now have young adults on my Christmas list,

and they'll be getting some kitchen gifts from me this year.

I sewed more Christmas fabric scraps into gift bags

and free motioned a message onto one side with some 12 weight Aurifil thread.

Seems like I made more gift bags than Christmas gifts.

And finally, my top photos of the year on Instagram #2016bestnine.

Follow me @brendasuderman

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers.

Crazy Mom quilts

TGIFF

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Four flimsy finishes for Friday

My friend A. and I started off the week 

sewing a charity blanket top together

and both of us just kept going.

We were aiming for four 60 by 80 inch tops

to make tied blankets for refugees who have recently moved here.

A. cut a stash of oldies but goodies from her mother-in-law

into 3 inch strips to make this jellyroll race quilt.

 I finished the borders of my triangle quilt.

The large HST finish at 6 inches.

I used up a stash of blue to make this zipper style top.

And both of us made this bar quilt from a bunch of calicos.

Now they're ready for a group tieing day early in the new year.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers at

Crazy Mom Quilts

and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Lots of triangulation here

A week ago I started sewing together 6.5 inch HST,

previously cut from scraps with my Accuquilt GO cutter.

The whole point was to empty a bin

and make a charity quilt 60 by 80 inches.

I put it together in a 9 by 11 grid,

which makes it 54 by 66 before borders.

Then I started auditioning borders.

I like this black and gold leafy print,

but it overwhelms the triangles.

Then I saw the cover of Gwen Marston's latest book titled Free Range Triangles

and dug through another scrap box of precut 3.5 inch HST to make a zig zag border.

I plan to border the whole quilt with a narrow inner border

and then add the zig zags.

So here's the dilemma:

Should I add another column of big HST and make it 60 inches wide

and just add the borders top and bottom?

Or take off a column of HST and sew the triangles in a 8 by 12 grid

before putting on the borders to get it close to 60 by 80?

The dimensions for a charity quilt can run a bit bigger,

but my problem is that my free batting that I was going to use in this quilt

only measure 60 inches wide.

And I really don't want to unpick a column.

I'm going to take it to my guild meeting tonight and get their opinions,

but feel free to weigh in.

I'm linking up with Beth and other Monday Makers

 at Love Laugh Quilt.

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.

Little Man's quilt

Recently I finished a mini quilt I had pieced earlier this year from solid scraps.

That centre block measures just three inches

and the whole quilt is 13 inches square.

My friend C. carries this 4 inch poseable figure in her purse

and photographs her adventures with "Little Man."

As soon as I gave her this quilt to hang in her new office

(she has a new academic appointment)

she saw it as a quilt for Little Man.

C. also has a bigger poseable figure dubbed "Big Man"

who is the perfect size to hold the quilt

by putting his hands in the hanging triangles in the back.

Catching up and giveaway update

Recently I had the urge to play with little bits

and this is what happened.

This is the craziest one.

I sewed together one-inch strips of Kona solids leftover from something else

and made this block.

Right now it's floating in a navy background,

but I think it needs a few more borders.

Then I got out the Oakshott charms

and made another Amish-inspired quilt.

This measures 8 by 10 inches.

The two yellow and green minis on the left 

are 8.5 by 11 inches,

the size of  copy paper.

None of these has a purpose yet,

but stay tuned.

This single-sized 1600 challenge quilt in pastel batiks.

is  waiting for me to quilt it

and the deadline is fast approaching.

I didn't make the quilt top, but I volunteered to quilt it

for a local charity sale.

I'd like to incorporate more texture

but I also know the price probably won't be much over $200

so I don't want to spend too much time quilting it.

I'm considering straight line diagonals

or free motion loops

or just plain straight lines.

Any other suggestions?

If you're still with me,

I chose a new giveaway winner,

since the original winner didn't leave a way to contact her.

7 

rondiquilts said...

I still read blogs because of the inspiration it gives to my creative side and spiritual side. Just like your post today. I never would have though of that combination, but I LOVE it! Made my day. Many thanks.

Stitching stars

I've been deliberating about how to quilt this for months

and I finally just picked up a needle to stitch.

I may or may not be hand quilting around each of these stars

but at least I've started.

I have a plan.

Sort of.

Stay tuned.

I'm linking up with

The Needle and Thread Network 

and Midweek Makers