Next up… a fundraising quilt.

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Sewfrench

This is what I’ve been working on.

Squaring up blocks

I’m squaring up blocks, that after I made them, I decided I should soak and rinse to make sure nothing would bleed. I don’t normally prewash, but I’ve never used anything like Oakshott cotton and the pigment is so dense, I got nervous about fading after I made all the blocks. I hand rinsed each block, squeezed them out, tossed the in the dryer, with a dry towel for about 15 minutes then stretched them out square and pressed them the rest of the way dry.

I drew me up a grid, using pencil and a scrap of white fabric, and pinned it to my ironing board. I used this to roughly square up blocks as I pressed them dry.

Good news? Not one drop of dye could be found, from the deepest purple, brightest, yellow, rusts or even the reds. I could not be happier!

TTrimming blocks to the smallest blocks' size

Then I squared them up to the smallest sized one and arranged and arranged to match the color arrangement in my head. I find that taking pictures, then looking at them on the computer screen is more accurate than my eye, when arranging colors and patterns. So lots and lots of pictures and rearranging and maybe even some email and texting going on before I finalized it.

My final layout.

Grow*ing* Benzie charity quilt

I think.

At least until the are stitched together.

More details to come….

Show and Tell

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WIP

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Pushing Reset

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Sewfrench

I’m sure you wondered where I disappeared to. Or maybe you didn’t notice?

We spend part of our winters in Florida and this year that part was March. It seems strange telling relative strangers, or relatives who are strangers(!), our plans ahead of time, so instead I just kind of dropped out of cyberspace. I contemplated writing generic posts while away, but it felt really good to slightly disconnect with no expectations. It was nice. Really nice.

I took lots of books, no quilting or hand work and very few pictures!

One evening we took a sunset, sailing cruise on the Manastee River. We randomly chose a boat at the marina and the captain just so happened to have two spots left for that night. We had a little history tour, astronomy lesson and maybe a little wine and appetizers. There were only 6 of us on board so it was really interesting. Highly recommend the Windancer!

DSC_5460

We took in quite a few of Tiger’s baseball games. I think it is going to be a good year!!

IMG_3555We enjoyed lots of fresh produce from a local farm market. We were also really happy to find that there was a brand new Fresh Market grocery store nearby. This is one of our favorite chains and we’ve missed it since it closed in Grand Rapids.

DSC_5362

We enjoyed fresh oysters as often as possible! They were HUGE!!  And just look at that sunshine! Can’t get enough of that, either!

Fresh oysters

And lots and lots of walking. We walked about 5 miles first thing every morning. I think we only missed 3 mornings for the entire month. And even then we made up our 10,000, minimum steps, later in the day. Now that we are back home, we are waiting for the cold to move on out, to get back at it. Outside.

Fitbit Fitbit Fitbit

Getting out, breathing the fresh air, getting away from the TV, news, and media really does revive a person. Listening to your inner voice, not those being pushed on to you is like pushing a reset button.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Oh and the sunsets……. I think they were showing out, this year, they were just gorgeous. The perfect ending to any day. Don’t you think?

Sunset Anna Maria Island, FL

We feel blessed to be able to spend part of our winter in Florida, but it sure feels good to be back home!!

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4 hours to a smarter packed traveler

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Sewfrench

Per the norm… it all started with a trip to my local fabric store….

Carry on bag

They have a second building with tons of home decor fabrics at discount prices. Rolls upon rolls of upholstery fabrics that are just a delight to behold. Most of them run about $18-25 a yard which is super cheap compared to most places.

But still…. Ouch!

I’ve been going to make me one of these Amy Butler Weekender carry on bags since I first saw the pattern, years ago. Well, this week I decided it was finally time. I need one! My usual carry on isn’t big enough for my laptop and if I have to gate check it then the purse I carry is dictated by the size of plane I am traveling on because I then have to toss my laptop in to my purse. This is so not cool.

I spent probably an hour trying to decide on which fabric to pick, what coordinate for the lining and piping… “Ouch, this is going to be way more expensive than I thought or dreamt”, kept rolling through my head, hindering a decision. Then I spotted the green print propped up along the side wall and thought that was sweet with the raspberry and orange flowers, but of course I’d done that 100 times already. Everything in there is sweet! But this one wouldn’t show the grunge of traveling like the off white Parisian print I was carrying around on a 54″ roll…. As I continue digging around, trying not to have all these rolls spill down on me, while holding on to fabric… I spot the orange one and it is has the same raspberry in it and appears to come from the same collection. Then I spot the sign that says all rolls of fabric 1.00 off per yard. Can’t beat that. I take a look at the tag and what??? 4.97??? Then a dollar off? Woah! You’ve got my attention now!

Amy Butler Weekemder fabrics

It’s it funny how quickly you can decide on fabric choices when there is a bargain to be had?!!

And yes, I bought way too much fabric, I didn’t have the pattern with me and apparently reading those small numbers, off a website from my phone, cost me a yard and a quarter of fabric, I didn’t have to spend. At least now I have extra to make coordinating pieces…

I’ve made lots of bags and this pattern had no real surprises to it. It does get really, really thick in places and you’ll want to have a stock of heavy-duty needles, because no doubt your break at least one, I broke 2. I started out on my newer machine, a Janome 6600P. I’m not a big fan of the 3 different zipper feet I have for this machine and since that’s what you use pretty much the whole time, because of all the cording, I wasn’t having fun. Once the fabric got to about 10 thicknesses, that machine makes a horrible noise and says “stopping for safety reasons” and there you are, stuck. Turn it off, turn it back on, wait for it to reload…. Adjust all the settings, again, or else hit the zipper foot with the needle…. Every time I turned around… What is up with that? Does anyone know how to bypass that? I don’t believe it stopping for safety. I just want to sew!!!

Janome 6600P

That’s when I decided to step up to my older machine, which I highly prefer for zippers and cording, anyway. I say step up because this one is set up as at counter top height as a standing sewing machine, which I really do love! I bought this Bernina 1080 in the early 90’s, back when it was still made in Switzerland. At that time I was sewing, for a living, out of my home, and this baby was a powerhouse, still is. It has put in more replacement zippers than most people can even imagine. The throat on this machine isn’t as large as on the Janome, but that really wasn’t an issue here. The only reason I bought the Janome was because this one was aging and I knew I would eventually need a back up machine for service time, which can be slow.

Bernina 1080

So the changes I made, weren’t changes as much as additions. I added a 6″ x 8″ patch style pocket on one side of the interior and on the other I added a pocket the full width, lined with Peltex, similar to the exterior pockets. It’s the perfect size for my Macbook Pro!

Added pockets in my Amy Butler Weekender bag

I happened to already own the Peltex, the super, heavy-duty interfacing, the pattern called for, so I did use it on the front, back, base, large interior pocket, handles and just two layers in which Amy refers to as the false bottom… I did not use any other interfacing. With the heavier weight fabric, it was just not needed. Plus the time involved in cutting, ironing…. not a fan, if not absolutely necessary. And it wasn’t.

Adding hardware to Amy Butler weekender bag

I changed the way the zipper went in because I am persnickety about zippers. The way I did it caused the lining to need less seam allowances so it needed to be trimmed off close to an inch, on each side, before the center panel was treated as one. I stitched and folded the lining back tightly against the zipper so there is no chance of the lining getting caught in the zipper. Actually I stopped reading the pattern about here, because I don’t believe in hand stitching. If you can figure it out, you can work the lining and the front piece, kissing good sides together and stitch from one bottom corner, over the top and down the other side, (with the top zippered panel inside it), then pull it inside out and Wa La! No hand stitching! Repeat for the other side.

I lengthened the shoulder straps to 52″, the perfect, toss it over my shoulder length for me.

I also added these heavy-duty brass swivel snap clips with a tab attached down, in the side pocket, allowing me to attach a detachable shoulder strap, if I pack it too heavy. And because this bag holds so much, it weighed it at about 30 pounds, fully loaded this morning.

Amy Butler weekender bag with changes

Finished Dimensions for the Weekender Bag:
14” wide across the top of the bag
17” wide across the bottom
14 1/2” tall
7 1/2” deep

And in just four short hours and less than 20$ later, it is done, and I am out of here!!

My Amy Butler carry on

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Lots of Hugs II

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Sewfrench

I was glad to finally get this one finished. I didn’t want to have to mail it along with the previous quilt that goes with it. I don’t know about you but I despise shipping quilts.  I hear too many horror stories about them being lost in the mail, not knowing if they were received, and Lord forbid the uncomfortable having to ask if you received the quilt I put so many months in to creating. Okay, okay… Enough of that. I knew if I would hurry up with the embroidered labeling, and the notes, I could hand deliver them, when I was over that way, which I finally did. This week!

Cross Terrain quilt

Lots of Hugs II
48″ x 60″
Scrap quilt
Kona White
machine pieced
hand quilted
gifted to Margaret’s Hope Chest‘s
A Mother’s Hope program
February 2013

I actually cut the pieces for this one when I had “all” the scraps spilled out, back in May,  when I creating the first version of this quilt. You can read all the details here. So when this cause put out a call for quilts, I knew what I needed to do. What a bonus to have had this lovely piece of voile, tucked away to use for the backing, making it especially cozy. This is the first time I’ve used voile on a quilt. What a beautiful piece of fabric to quilt through! Between that and the Quilter’s Dream batting, this was definitely a dream to hand quilt!

Lots of Hugs II

So my finish this week is both Lots of Hugs II, but primarily getting both of these quilts wrapped up, notes written and actually delivered!

Cross Terrain quilt

Yay, for wrapping things up! I love Fridays!

Crazy Mom Quilts

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A Stitch In Time 2013 2

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Quilting is paused…

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Sewfrench

as I play with my very first Liberty of London, tana lawn, yardage! This one is called Multi Flowers 0025a, over at Purl Soho, where I picked it out.

Liberty Tana Lawn multi

They have a beautiful selection and they are also one of the few online stores to carry Quilter’s Dream batting. I love supporting my local stores, but you can’t always get what you want….

Anyway…. with a picture in my head, an invisible zipper and hand-made rosettes, let’s see how this is going to work.

I whipped a pair of these coasters out for my Valentine, last week. I didn’t have a plan, just some fabric scraps. The first one turned out best.

Valentine coaster

The second one…. It’ll use, even if it’s proportions aren’t quite right. LOL!

Now I’ll type it up so I can make matching ones and you can make one, too, if you like!

For reference, I used 1/4″ seams. The small gray square is cut at 1 3/4″. The colored strips below it are cut at 1 1/4″ wide. Each of the three colors are about 6″ long, all stitched together then added as pictured, to one side of the gray square, trimmed, then added to the gray square and colored strip side.  I then trimmed it square to 3 1/2″. I added 1 1/4″ strips of gray on all sides and trimmed square again. Cut a backing piece the same size as the finished front. I finished it with the flip and turn method, like a pillow slip, no binding needed. Layer the batting, then the backing square (good side up) and the front, (good side down) and stitch around all sides, leaving a 2″-3″ opening on one side. Turn, press and stitch the opening closed, quilt as desired. Do it now and you’ll be all set for next Valentine’s Day! Hope it makes sense!

Julie Otsuka’s first novel When the Emperor Was Divine was an enjoyable read and an especially quick one, coming in at under 150 pages. It’s the story of a Japanese/American family reclassified and their days of internment in a Utah enemy alien camp during WWII. It’s told in an interesting voice, no names given, as if everyone is just another anonymous, faceless enemy, no more, or less, valuable than the next. I had not read much about this side of WWII and enjoyed it.

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Since that one was so quick I picked up another of her books, Buddha in the Attic, and read it, too. It is the story of Japanese women coming to San Francisco in the WWII era, meeting their new husbands after only seeing their (or their best friend’s) photo. It follows as farm laborers and maids, learning the language, child rearing, missing their families, to ultimately rejecting their heritage and history.  Another short but good one, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading them back to back though!

The Buddha in the Attic

And it really doesn’t matter is which order you read them, though chronologically Buddha would be first, even though The Emperor was written first.

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Twinkle quilt ~ Revealed

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Sewfrench

And it is finished!

Twinkle quilt @ Sewfrench.com

Twinkle
an original by Sewfrench
for Braden
approximately
34″ x 38″
2013
Machine pieced
Hand Quilted

I especially love that I still had some of the fabric I used in my grandson’s, newborn quilt, in 2002, to use as the backing. It is a hefty, super soft, quilting fabric!

Twinkle quilt @ Sewfrench.com

I had no pattern or plan when I started this one. I knew I wanted to do irregular stars, but didn’t bother to do any math, before I started. If I had of, I would probably have made the stars in sizes that added up. You know 3″, 6″, 9″s where you could stack the blocks and make them logically fit together. But no. I made a stack of random star blocks, laid them out on the piece of backing I had on hand, then using my ruler, added bits and pieces to make it all add up to a squared up quilt.

Starry, Starry Night quilt

Funny how often I find myself doing this exact thing. Especially here lately. As opposed to slowing down my mind and just doing the math. Maybe even writing it down for future reference. And if I did that, I’d know the precise dimensions of this one.

Using your imagination you can see that the small, navy star is sparkly and glittery. There are a few others, in different colors scattered about. I thought it really made it Twinkle!

Twinkle quilt @ Sewfrench.com

I hate that so often I don’t get to deliver quilts in person and this is another example of that. I sure hope our great-nephew Braden is enjoying his tummy time on it!!

Have a great weekend!

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The Dog Days of Winter

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Sewfrench

I’m still reading Barefoot Sisters Southbound by Lucy and Susan Letcher on my Kindle.

It’s not that it is a bad book…. It is a longer book, coming in at 480 pages. I’m still only about half way through it. For some reason Pawn Stars keeps catching my attention at bedtime….

In the meantime I did finish The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides. He also wrote Middlesex, which I read years ago and loved for so many eye-opening reasons.

The Marriage Plot

In this book, Madeline, a privileged college student, is writing her Sr thesis about the way marriage plots are used in classic literature. The Plot is told through the lives, and her relationships, with her parents and her two love interests.  They are living The Marriage Plot. Interesting enough, I will give it 3 stars. Maybe I need a stronger background in the classics of Jane Austen and George Eliot to have given it the rave reviews and awards it has received.

A New York Times Notable Book of 2011
A Publisher’s Weekly Top 10 Book of 2011
A Kirkus Reviews Top 25 Best Fiction of 2011 Title
One of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2011
A Salon Best Fiction of 2011 title
One of The Telegraph’s Best Fiction Books of the Year 2011

And because I have nothing else to the hand quilting stage, I’ve picked up the embroidery hoop. Again. I don’t think I’ll ever love embroidering, but I do love to have something to work on in front of the TV.

Book Quilt

The long, gray days of the winter that will never end. Reading and stitching that’s what I’m doing to make it a little more bearable. How about you?

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Just zip it!

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Sewfrench

And it is! Following Debbie’s tutorial, then altering it on several points, the triple-zip I pulled fabrics for, last week, is ready to be put to use. I love it!

Triple zipper bag

I made my zipper tabs wider so I could get really nice square corners. But then every thing about the dimensions I changed! Now I need to get or make some proper zipper pulls, though a ponytail holder will work in a pinch!

Triple zipper bag

I used the same orange batik lining throughout. For some reason I have a ton to this in about an 18″ width. Must be the leftover from making a quilt backing. I have no idea, but it matched and worked out well.

Triple zipper pouch

And yes, you can use directional fabric on a pouch and make it work. You just need to make a bottom seam.

Directional fabric pouch

I cut the body an extra inch longer, and when I got to the final step where you flipped it up to attach it to the back side of the zipper, I found where would be the bottom center would be and I cut it then flipped the back side upside down (which is right side up when going up around the back) and sewed the bottom seam. After I completed the bag I seamed across the corners to box them in and give them depth and dimension. That also could help hide where you didn’t predict the center exactly. Next time I will find where I think center will be, then move it toward the back by 3/8 of an inch. It should then fall at the center. This is because you already have the front half of the zipper finished and maybe didn’t think of that!

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A midweek update.

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Sewfrench

I finished another book, this week, Still Alice by Lisa Genova. This is a very mixed review for me. It is a novel, written by a Harvard professor. A neuroscientist told in the voice of a newly diagnosed, early onset Alzheimer’s patient. This book feels like something a doctor would prescribe to a family trying to cope with a, newly diagnosed, family member. It was a very unsettling look into how a patient and her family proceeds and tries to cope with this horrific disease. Fiction written by an author highly educated, in the field of biophychology, isn’t a fluffy novel. This book has a very clinical feel to it. Full of statistics and the answers to every question a newly diagnosed family might ask. I had a hard time believing this family liked each other even before the diagnosis, much less after.

Still Alice book

I had a grandfather who died as an Alzheimer’s patient, though not the early onset form. It makes me curious how this compares to he and his wife’s experience. I hate that I wasn’t close to them, but because I wasn’t, I don’t know what it was like going through that.

During the reading of this book, every time I experienced the typical word on the tip of my tongue, couldn’t find my phone, wondered why I went into a room, it made me question whether this could be in my future…. Not a happy book. But not a happy diagnosis to be facing either.

I’m still reading Barefoot Sisters Southbound by Lucy and Susan Letcher.

Barefoot Sisters Southbound

It’s interesting. A little strange, hiking the mountains barefoot and all. Not in barefoot feeling shoes, but really and truly barefoot. They put shoes on to wear in camp, right. In some ways it makes me want to hike the Appalachian Trail. Parts of it anyway. I didn’t realize people actually do hike parts. Apparently there are hostels that haul hikers back and forth to the trail, into the laundromats, pizza parlors, grocery stores… I had no idea. Actually I’ve never given much thought to how you haul and cook food for over 2000 miles much less do laundry. I do know it is a dream of my brothers and after reading, I can see why. Letting go of technology and immersing yourself in nature, all the hikers you hook up with along the way, even in weeks of rain and injury there is just something about it.  It’s interesting, I have to say.

And in my studio…

This is why I have been working so hard of making room for new fabric! Making lots of room for my arrangement, of a selection, of these luscious fabrics.

Oakshott cotton

Aren’t they beautiful?!

Oakshott Colour Shot

Oakshott Colourshot Shot Cottons

I’ll be petting these for a while. It could be quite some time before you see a finished project using this fabric… Coming from being a Kona cotton user, these are a lot more fragile that I would have thought, more like a voile. Maybe that is what a shot cotton is? Yum!

I’m also working on finishing a quilt. I’m down to the binding, using leftover blocks and piecing together leftover binding strips to bind it in.
This is another hand quilted quilt for a donation.

Lots of Hugs II

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And the Award goes to….

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Sewfrench

I traipse out through the snow, to the mailbox, and what do I find? A package from my older sister. Mailed halfway across the country. She does this all the time. The only way I read the hometown, weekly newspaper is because she saves them up and mails them to me, for months worth of news, all at once. She is notorious for her randomness, too. This one wasn’t totally random. Not to me, anyway, but maybe to some.

Best sister ever

I recently blogged about how much this quilt looked like Smarties and how much I loved them and look what I got in the mail today.

Sweet Strings quilt

Jumbo Smarties! These are HUGE. A picture doesn’t do them justice. They are bigger than a quarter! And are they ever fresh? No crunching, they just melt in your mouth. One after another. And another and another….

And because she is such a special older sister, she actually remembers how much I loved them as a youngster. Before I couldn’t pronounce my “s”es, when I used the “f” sound instead of the “s” sound, when she used to walk me down the street to the local bar (yes, bar)…  so she could hear me ask them for my favorite candy. She got lots of laughs  being my older sister, I am sure.

My sister and I

But that’s okay. Since those days she has made up for it 100 times over. And then some.

Living far away from the rest of the family hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been made a whole lot easier having this crazy, thoughtful, loving, older sister of mine in my life…..

I am so lucky to have her.

XOXO heart

And now you know what time it is??? Time for me to do some Hoe Downs to burn off all that sugar!!

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