Sewfrench

Twinkle quilt ~ Revealed

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Sewfrench

And it is finished!

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!

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.

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!

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!

Linking up with:

Crazymomquilts

Posted in 2013 completes, Can I get a Whoop Whoop, Finish it Up Fridays, hand quilting, Linkys, Quilting, Show it off Fridays, TGIFF | Tagged baby, hand, night, quilt, quilting, star, Starry, Starry Night quilt, Twinkle, wonky stars quilt | 6 Comments

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.

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.

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?

Linking up with:

Fabric Tuesdays

Whatcha Reading

Freshly Pieced

Posted in Books, Fabric Tuesday, Linkys, Quilting, Reading, Review, Watcha reading, WIP | Tagged best fiction books, books, embroidery, literature, reading, The Barefoot Sisters Southbound, The Marriage Plot, WIP | 1 Comment

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!

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.

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

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!

Linking up with :
crazymomquilts

Posted in fabric, Finish it Up Fridays, organizing, Sewing, Show it off Fridays, TGIFF | Tagged bag, directional, fabric, pouch, sewing, tab, triple. zipper, triplezipalong, zipper tabs | 27 Comments

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.

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.

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.

Aren’t they beautiful?!

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.

Linking up:

Whatcha Reading?

Fabric Tuesday

and Freshly Pieced.

Come join the fun!

Posted in Books, Charity Quilt, fabric, Fabric Tuesday, hand quilting, Linkys, Quilting, Reading, Sewing, Watcha reading, WIP | Tagged barefoot sisters southbound, book, Fabric Tuesday, margaret's hope chest, mental-health, nature, Oakshott, still alice, whatcha reading, WIP | 13 Comments

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.

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.

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.

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!!

Posted in Family, Fitness, Quilting | Tagged Hoe Downs, quilt, sister, smarties, string, sweet strings quilt, T-Tapp | 6 Comments

When snow falls, nature listens.

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Sewfrench

Have you seen the Triple Zipalong put on over at A Quilter’s Table? Well, it’s actually over at Flickr. I’ve been wanting to make out of these Triple Zip Pouches, using Debbie’s tutorial for a while now. Not sure what I would use it for, but a dozen different things come to mind! Grab a button and join the fun. It runs through Feb 15 and there are lots of participation prizes!

Another reason to finally push the buy button for some Zipit zippers. I grabbed bundles of a lightweight 10″ and a heavier 14″ one. I think I must be the last sewer on Earth to bite the bullet and refill my stash using Zipit. Salvation Army and Goodwill is all well and good, but you can’t always get what you want, when you need it.

I dug through my stash and interviewed lots of different options of fabric color/zipper combinations. I bought this Anthology Woodlands acorn fabric online, on clearance, last year, hoping to use it for a baby quilt back, but the color wasn’t exactly what I thought it was. And this tree bark fabric I wish I had more of, it is a great go to fabric for all kinds of projects.

So this is what I’ll be working on today. That and shoveling snow…. We got 8″ after we went to bed last night and it is still falling at an inch, an hour, now. We’re expecting at least 3″ per day, every day, for the next week.

When snow falls, nature listens. ~Antoinette van Kleeff

On days like this, it’s in my nature to hunker down and create.

Make it a great weekend!

Posted in fabric, Fabric Tuesday, Linkys, Nature, organizing, Photography, Sewing, Snow, View out my window, WIP | Tagged anthology woodlands, bag, nature, ouch, snow, triple, zip-along, zipit, zipper | 6 Comments

Friday finishes

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Sewfrench

A couple of weeks ago, I showed you this panel of fabric I had completed using 2 1/2″ candy charms I received in some swaps.

What I didn’t show was what I did with it. I added the zipper in a different, from the usual, way. After finishing quilting the front, batting and lining together, I serged across the short ends where I planned on placing my zipper.

I added a tab to both ends of the zipper. The bottom, a neatly finished one, to finish it off and give you something to hold on to when you zip it closed and to the top end, a folded over one, to be able to more easily insert it into the side seam. Doing it this way, you only need one side finished, the other three sides are hidden in seams.

I then laid the zipper on top of the serged stitching and topstitched it there, just covering up the stitching. You may remember this was one of the cool zippers I picked out at Salvation Army, and it was bound in a matching satin fabric. I didn’t want to lose that effect. You could use this method with any zipper, binding or not. It really saves a lot of time!

I stitched the back-end to within 1/2″ of where the side seam will be and backstitched. Flipped it around and did the same on the other side.

Then I pulled the zipper out-of-the-way and stitched the side seam, from top to bottom and serged the seam to keep it from raveling. And to give it a neater appearance, since this bag is unlined. You could zigzag it if you don’t have a serger.

On the other end, I topstitched the zipper right off the end of the bag, over the tabs, turned it inside out and stitched that side seam closed and then serged it.

I did not intend this to be a tutorial but if you have some general bag making experience I think you might get a feel for how I placed the zipper on the outside.

When you add a wraparound tab to the ends of a zipper, adjusting length as needed, but having at least 1/2″ + 1/4″ (or whatever your side seam measurement is) visible on each end, then treat it as one and insert as usual, you won’t have all the bulk, in the corner when you turn it out. I prefer a nice square corner and this is the easiest way to get one, in my opinion.

Do keep in mind, when using tabs on the top of a bag, that you are narrowing the opening. If you are hoping for an exact width you need to consider that.

This pink patchwork bag is to protect an iPad that lives far, far away. I visited in at Christmas. I don’t own an iPad, and my husband’s has a different case than this one. The best I could do was wrap a tape measure around it, (when I was near it) in both directions and came up with 18 1/2″ x 22 1/2″ measurement. Then when I was ready to make it, I ran around the house with my tape measure looking for anything with about this dimension. I didn’t have to go far before I found the Official Beanie Baby Encyclopedia. I knew we must have still had that on a bookshelf for a reason.

I also put a tiny, little seam across the bottom corners to give the bag a little depth, hopefully matching the depth of the iPad.

I sure hope it fit! If not, a girl can never have too many zip top bags, right?!!

With the zipper photos, you can obviously see I have two different projects going. I hope it doesn’t confuse you. You can also see my ADHD disorder live and in person, too, can’t you?!

For a book finish this week, it was Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. It’s a relatively quick book that sucks you in right away.

So many things to learn in this book, I really like how the authors make it such a human interest story giving us details of Jackie, the mothering, the White House redecorating project side by side of all the hard facts. The way they are not content to say that Jan. 20, 1961, is a cold day. They must point out that “a brutal wind strafes the crowd.” They really pull you into the story and make you “live” it, not just read about it. And they are not content to remain in Washington; the book quickly switches to a “meanwhile” mention of the future gunman. “Approximately 4,500 miles away, in the Soviet city of Minsk, an American who did not vote for John F. Kennedy is fed up,” they write, massaging the fact that Oswald was at that point fed up with the Soviet government, not with America’s new president.

Give it a go, I think you’ll learn something. And that’s always a good thing, don’t you think?

Last night I saw where Amazon had a poll asking how many books you have read since the first of the year. I felt like I had finished quite a few but had to check my list to see how many exactly. And it was 10 and half way through 2 more. I was really surprised it was that many! I think taking the time to study and pick good books really pays off.

Next up? The Barefoot Sisters Southbound by Lucy and Susan Letcher. It was a free Kindle book, when I picked it up, so we will have to wait and see.

And with that, I found a new linky to join in on, with what looks to be lots of good book recommendations, at Patchwork Times. Head over to see what others are reading!

Also linking up with AmandaJean at crazymomquilts

Posted in Books, Crazy Mom Friday Finishes, Finishes, Linkys, machine quilting, Quilting, Reading, Sewing, Show it off Friday | Tagged applied zipper tutorial, book, cover, inserting, iPad, Killing Kennedy, patchwork, quilted, reading, review, sewing, The Barefoot Sisters Southbound, zipper, zippers | 5 Comments

The evolution of a quilt.

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Sewfrench

It all started with pulling a pile of Kona solids, yesterday, to use them up. I want new fabric but can not justify buying any more until I make a dent in what I own.

My first layout, trying to get what is in my head in to real life.
I decided more of the color, less of the neutral. These are 6″ finished sides on these triangles, meaning I cut strips 5 3/4″ wide, then used a 60° ruler to cut the equilateral triangles.

Then I wondered if maybe it was too busy with color so I covered some of the bolder colors with the more neutral ones. That is when I went to grab a Kleenex and noticed how close I was to someone else’s color design. And I do really like this design, too. It just wasn’t where I was headed, today.

I questioned that maybe it was beginning to lean towards being “too” neutral. Believe it or not I lean toward the calm, low volume, palettes myself, even if you don’t believe me based on the quilts I make….

Then another try. This one includes all of the first colorful palette but thinned out with more neutrals. Ehh… It’s missing something.

And the final plan.
Maybe a slight bit of rearranging, maybe not.
And honestly, it is a not quite as bold as it looks on my computer screen.
It definitely has the sunset look to it.

I like it!

Thanks Amanda for being on the other end of the computer screen through all the different variations.
It is much easier to be confident, of your design, when you have feedback from a trusted source.
And if she’s your daughter, she can read your mind.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday

and

Posted in Design, fabric, Linkys, Quilting, Sewing, WIP | Tagged 60°, design, Kona, pyramid, quilt, scrap, sunset, triangle | 18 Comments

Did you get the memo??

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Sewfrench

I am pulling fabric now. This inventory reduction quilt will be using up some Kona solids. Now that I photographed them, the colors look really boring. I may have to add or eliminate colors as I go… I refuse to buy more. Hmmm…

This is the third quilt top I’ve put together, since the first of the year, and I really can’t see that I have made a dent in my inventory. At all……..

But I have a plan!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about apparently you aren’t Downton Abbey, the best television watching in a long, long time. Peter and I are totally addicted. It is a Masterpiece Theatre production from Britain and airs, on PBS, Sunday nights. This is the third season and it is so addicting! Seasons 1 and 2 are available, for free, to watch on your computer, if you have Amazon Prime. Your local library may have them too, but the waiting list could be very long, but oh so worth it.

Downton is a nice break from all the Civil War DVDs we’ve been watching since Christmas. Not sure whose brilliant gift idea that was <<shaking head… I have to say, this is much more fun to hand quilt, too!

And yes, please, free Mr. Bates!

Posted in fabric, Fabric Tuesday, Linkys, Quilting, Sewing | Tagged addiction, Downton Abbey, Kona, pulling fabric, quilting, sewing, solids | 9 Comments

Sweet Strings ~ revealed

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Sewfrench

Sweet Strings is complete! The un-embroidery and re-embroidery is complete. I decided instead of wandering out, in the bright and blistering cold, to stick with the picture I took last week, when there was no snow, even if it is a bit brighter than does the colors justice. I can not imagine I could do any better with the way the sun was reflecting today.

Because the colors of this quilt reminded me so much of candy colors, Smarties in particular and because it is a string quilt, I chose to name it Sweet Strings. It is the second, no make that third, (no picture of Hugo’s), string quilt I’ve made. My base blocks use a piece of printer paper cut square, so 8 1/2″. Once they have been quilted, then washed and crinkled, my blocks are 7 1/2″.

Sweet Strings
38″ x 46″
Machine pieced, Machine quilted.
2013
Created for A Mother’s Hope.

I’d like to try a larger block, string quilt, next time. I bought yards of a white cotton that turned out to be too thin for quilts, not quite the bargain it seemed…. but I think it will be perfect for the foundation piecing of a string quilt. Plus I won’t have to peel it all away, like you do with paper, I’ll just leave it for a thin extra layer.

And as for my book finish this week….

Townie by Andre Dubus III won’t get out of my head. I really enjoyed it. I always think it is interesting to see where people come from and how they got to where they are going and the circumstances, along the way, that caused them to take the path they did. This one I picked up while browsing the library. I had no idea who this guy was, and why he wrote his memoir, but I liked the book description.

After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killed – or killing someone else. He signed on as a boxer.

Nearby, his father, an eminent author, taught on a college campus and took the kids out on Sundays. The clash of worlds couldn’t have been more stark – or more difficult for a son to communicate to a father. Only by becoming a writer himself could Andre begin to bridge the abyss and save himself. His memoir is a riveting, visceral, profound meditation on physical violence and the failures and triumphs of love.

This book takes place in and around Boston. Andre is in and out of Haverhill, Lynn, Salem…. all small towns we have visited on our last two trips out there. To have the first hand experience of being there, seeing the lay of the land and history of the area made it especially fun. Andre Dubus III also wrote House of Sand and Fog, a National Book Award finalist in 1999 and made into the 2003 movie, maybe you read (or saw) it?

Linking up with:

AmandaJean at Crazy Mom Quilts