Sunday Sevens 04-30-17

Tags

cats, Columbia Park, food, Kennewick, Olympia, politics, quilting, randonneuring, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Sunday Sevens

Baby geese!  Many, many baby geese!

I was too fried to post last Sunday when we got home from Olympia, so I’ll try to catch up on the last couple of weeks in this post without burying you in zillions of pictures.

Last weekend was the annual Northwest Fleche ride, a one-way (fleche=arrow) bike ride to Olympia, WA.  I drove up to meet my partner and his team at the end of the ride and participate in the March for Science at the state capitol in Olympia.

All of us old hippies on the way to the capitol.  All of these marches I’ve been to since January have been majority women, often majority middle-aged and older women.  We know a bully when we see one.

A few short speeches before the March.  It rained BUCKETS as I was driving over there and searching for a parking place, but the rain petered out as I was walking to the capitol, thankfully.

I enjoyed this sign.

Off and marching.  Estimated attendance 5,000 people, which I thought was pretty impressive considering that nearby Seattle also had a huge march.

Tacos for dinner.  Partner advised me that you really don’t want to hang out with randonneurs if you’re trying to lose weight because this is how they eat.  (Not shown:  equally impressive lunch.)

We came home on Sunday afternoon to find that my Nature’s Fabrics order had arrived!  I waited until they had a discount code available for members of their Facebook group, then used that and the gift certificate I won a while ago.  I got these two cotton/lycra knits, plus two heavier cotton knits for leggings.  I LOVE THEM.

Tuesday night clean-out-the-fridge-before-I-go-grocery-shopping pizza.  Sauce was a weird pesto made with leftover parsley, mint, tarragon, basil, and some broccoli.  Covered with random bits of veg, some ham that needed using, and various cheeses.  A little strange, but we ate it.

Quilt top is finished and sandwiched!  The back is also pieced–used up a LOT of scraps on this.   More scrap quilting to come, as I’ve realized that scrap stash is a bigger problem for me than actual yardage.  (BTW, Shelby is contemplating the napping possibilities here, you can just tell.)

I was inspired by this lovely post over at Mona’s place and filled another bag of clothing for the local shelter (partner also contributed).  The white bag in front is filled with 8 1/2 yards (plus some large scraps) of fabric to go to SCRAP.  Yay!

As always, all credit to Natalie of Threads and Bobbins for coming up with the idea for Sunday Sevens and giving us an excuse to talk about (very) random pizzas.

Have a great week, everybody, and I hope that you find some beauty in the world this week.  Sometimes it’s hard to find, and sometimes you have to make it yourself, but it’s there.  Hang on to it, and each other.

STH

WIP Wednesday: Oh Look, a Squirrel!

Tags

quilting, sewing, WIP Wednesday

Funny, that doesn’t look like a Summit Pack . . . .

(WIP = Work in Progress)

So, this is how it happened:  I was talking to a friend on Saturday and she was telling me how she’s having some interior decorating quandaries with her new house.  Then we moved on to discussing how we both have too much stuff and I happened to mention that I have all these fabric scraps that I really need to use up by making quilts for everybody I know, such as, for example, making her a wall quilt.  She LOVED this idea and went on to tell me HOW GREAT this would be for her house.

I don’t know her terribly well, so I asked her some questions about what she likes, and here’s what I have:  the area that needs a wall quilt is decorated now in a variety of browns and blues and contains some items they’ve been given as gifts, including some Western art; and her style isn’t really traditional or modern, but a mix of both.  She and her husband are both quiet, somewhat reserved people, with fairly stressful jobs, so I wanted to do something calming and simple.

A sensible person would have finished the two other projects that are cut out and sitting in their plastic bins, waiting for me to put them together.  But all I could think about was that box of brown scraps that I had despaired of ever using and my two drawers of blue scraps that would go SO WELL with those browns.

So I started work on it on Monday and the top is almost finished.

Just two blocks left to do on that bottom row.  Sorry about the lousy nighttime photo.

This is a free pattern from Moda called Cartwheels, and it’s a good one if you need to bang out a quilt in a hurry.  If you use the suggested jelly roll and cream background, you could probably get this top done in an afternoon.  Since I’m using a variety of fabrics and cutting as I go, it’s taking a bit longer.

I like the optical illusion in this pattern of the brown rectangles floating on top of the blue, but it does mean that you have to get at least a couple of rows done before you can assess whether it’s working.  I finished the first row on this and hated it; after the second, I hated it a bit less.  And I didn’t really get the floating effect until I saw this photo, taken while standing on a chair.

This quilt really isn’t my style, but I think it’s going to work very well once I get it quilted and bound.  It has a warmth and hominess to it, and is definitely a mix of traditional and modern.  Right now I’m thinking about a blue binding, and I might have enough of one of the blues for a backing.  As for the quilting, I’ve seen a swirly design in one of my books that would enhance the motion of the blue cartwheels, and maybe some sort of straight line quilting in the brown blocks?

I’m off and running after that squirrel . . . .

STH

WIP Wednesday: All Zipped Up

Tags

bags, Sew Together Bag, sewing, WIP Wednesday

(WIP = Work in Progress)

(And, no, I’m not tired of cheesy titles yet.  Shush.)

What was that I was saying about things taking so much longer than you think they will?

Finally, finally, finally got the Sew Together Bag done tonight.  Which I want to use on our long weekend that starts tomorrow.  The Summit Pack that I was hoping to finish, too?  Haven’t even cut the interfacing for it yet.

I obviously need to either lower my expectations or sew a LOT faster than I do now.

Anyway,  the bag is finished and it is super cool.

I love the way this comes together, but I’m afraid I did not love the pattern.  It’s listed as a “beginner” pattern, but I wouldn’t advise a beginner to come anywhere near it.  And not because it’s so complex–it really isn’t–but because there are so few pictures to illustrate the steps, and the pictures that are in the pattern don’t actually show what you need them to.  I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out if I hadn’t made so many zipper pouches (particularly this one) and bound so many quilts.  I was just reading the reviews of the pattern on Craftsy and the designer recommended to someone an online sew-along for step-by-step pictures.  Really, those should have been included in the pattern.

That said, though, there were a couple of choices I made here that made my life more difficult.  For one thing, I used bigger, beefier zippers than the designer used to make her sample, so I had to recut my zipper tabs to fit.  (I have this horror of little wimpy coil zippers, I suspect due to a couple of rather traumatic wardrobe malfunctions in high school–I carried safety pins around with me for years afterward.)

I also INSISTED–knowing full well that I would probably regret it–on using pinwale corduroy for the linings of my zipper pouches.  It’s about the lightest corduroy you’ve ever seen, but it’s still thicker than quilting cotton.

But that green!  You see why it had to be done, don’t you??

That’s probably why I had such trouble sewing the binding on the sides.  The trusty (or at least trusty up to that point) Kenmore was NOT having it and jammed rather spectacularly three or four times.  (I am now intimately familiar with its bobbin mechanism.)  The wimpy White just barely handled it, but the whole drama ate up a lot of time and caused some unnecessary grumpiness.

4.5 long pull coil zipper.  Tough beasties.

I think the bigger zipper was also the reason I wasn’t able to machine sew the tabs down on the bag as instructed.  There just was no room to get that part of the bag under the foot with that wide, stiff zipper in the way.  I wound up hand sewing the tabs down as securely as I could.  If they don’t hold, we’ll have to come up with a plan B, but they look pretty sturdy right now.

In the end, though, I came out of it with a very ingeniously-designed bag that I think will fit my traveling stuff nicely.  And it’s GREEN, which is obviously very important.

STH

Sunday Sevens 04-17-17

Tags

bags, food, recipe, sewing, Sunday Sevens, travel

They look a little wonky, but they were delicious.

Time for another edition of Sunday Sevens, a bit late this week, as I was busy with other things on Sunday–cooking, sewing, general life activities.

We don’t usually do much for Easter–my partner is not a big Holiday Person, and I have about twelve other things I’d rather be doing at any given moment than putting up or taking down decorations–but I do like to make Hot Cross Buns for us.  It’s a fun little childhood flashback for the Brit in the house, and I like them, too.  This year, I decided to shake things up a little and make these Hot Cross Biscuits (they’re really scones), with some added Mixed Spice to make them a little more traditional.  Yummy.

Also enjoyed the label on the pork loin I cooked.  Who knew Fred Meyer grocery store was so judgy about their meat?

I’m finishing up the Sew Together Bag, but I also cut out the Cloudsplitter Summit Pack in the hope of making it this week.  After spending all afternoon just cutting fabric, I think that might be a bit optimistic.

Just to complicate matters, I found this fabulous batik at Joann’s when I went to get the foam for the bag.  I fell in love with it and had to revise my whole plan for the bag.

Another meal from this week.  My spring allergies have hit and I haven’t wanted to eat anything but carby things, but I got some roasted veg and chicken sausage in there, too.

My herbs are coming up!

And the best news of all–we have our reservations for our trip to London this summer!  Partner is doing the London-Edinburgh-London ride again (while I go check out fabric stores!) and we have time before and after to do some exploring.

As always, a big thanks to Natalie of Threads and Bobbins for starting Sunday Sevens and giving us an excuse to take lots of random food photos.

Have a great week, everybody, and I hope you’ve got some wonderful things to look forward to.

STH

WIP Wednesday: Out of the Woods

Tags

bags, quilting, sewing, WIP Wednesday

Half an inch is really, really small, you guys.

(WIP = work in progress)

It felt like an eternity, but I finally got my exterior piece finished for my Sew Together Bag.  First time using that gridded interfacing (1″ squares)–using this tutorial and this one–and I have some thoughts about the process:

1.  Most important point–think SMALL BLOCKS when using this stuff.  My finished piece here, at 13 1/2″ x 9 3/4″, was WAY too big.  Cutting and placing and fusing 600+ teeny tiny blocks, trimming all those zillions of seams, pressing them all open–there’s a tremendous amount of tedious, repetitive labor here.  Do yourself a big favor and at least make each tedious, repetitive step a bit less overwhelming.  I’ve wanted to try the grid interfacing for a while because of the potential to make a quilt like this, and that’s the perfect type of project for it–small, manageable blocks and frequent color changes.
2.  That said, it doesn’t pay to spend too much time on the innards of a block like this.  I got out my mini-iron and labored over pressing all those tiny little seams open, only to mess all that up when I sewed the rows in the other direction.  I tried various methods to try to get those seam allowances to stay put with no success.  But then I realized that the seam allowances weren’t making the piece lumpy, and I decided to quit worrying about it.  Probably a better option (certainly quicker) would have been to skip the trimming and press the initial set of seam allowances to one side.
3.  There are a couple of interesting advantages to using such small pieces.  As Scrap Quilt Goddess Bonnie Hunter says, If it’s still ugly, you just didn’t cut it small enough!  This is the place to use up ugly prints in the right colors, or in the wrong colors, but the right color family.  I’ve got some stuff in here that I really don’t like, but it totally works.  Also, there’s a hell of a lot of seam allowance in this–what you cut winds up half the size in the finished block–so it uses up a fair bit of fabric.  And, hey, any quilt technique that helps you burn through fabric you don’t much care for, and gives you something that you’ll love at the end, is a pretty handy thing.

Reminds me of another bit of quilting wisdom:  done is better than perfect.

I took a break in the midst of this drama on Monday and cut out the rest of my bag pieces.  And my zippers from ZipperStop came today, so I’m ready to go.

I know I’ve bought sage-green zippers from them before, but I couldn’t find any this time.  Hope that light tan color isn’t too distracting. 

Anyway, I’m hoping to make some progress on this tomorrow.  Off to bed now.

STH

FNWF and Sunday Sevens 04-09-17

Tags

bags, cats, Pooh, sewing

Happy floof.

I don’t have very many pictures this week–it just wasn’t a terribly photogenic week, I’m afraid–but I wanted to show you the progress on the Sew Together bag, which I worked on for Friday Night with Friends.

I decided to use the gridded interfacing that I won the other day to piece together my assortment of greens for the outside of the bag.  This turned out to be a bit more of a project than I expected.  I needed a finished size piece of 13 1/2″ by 9 3/4″; with a grid of 1″ squares and 1/4″ seam allowance, I’d have to start with a 27″ by 19 1/2″ piece of interfacing (plus a few inches of extra just to be safe).

So, I sat down to figure out how many squares of fabric I’d need . . . no, that can’t possibly be right . . . I’ll recalculate in the morning when I’m not tired, I’m sure I’m making a mistake . . . .  Nope, in the morning, the answer was still 609 1″ squares.

YIKES.

So that was Friday night.

Then, on Saturday, I mixed all my squares together and laid them out on the adhesive side of the grid.  My ironing board was too small, so I did this on a towel on my dining room table.

And here it is with all the squares in place and pressed down.

I’m working now on sewing all those long, looooonnnnggg seams.  This whole process is probably less tedious than sewing all those teeny, tiny squares together two by two, but it’s still plenty tedious.  Good for when you want something mindless to do, but it’s not going to be my favorite quilt technique, that’s for sure.

I am loving all those greens together, though.  These less-bright greens aren’t my favorite, so I have a lot of them sitting around that I haven’t found a way to use, and I love how they all look together.  The combination reminds me of a walk in the woods.

However, that’s not the most exciting thing that happened last week.

THAT would be THIS RIGHT HERE:

You guys, I DID A THING.

Take a look at my new toy right there.

YEAH BABY.

Backstory:  The sewing machine I’ve been using is a basic White that I bought maybe 15 (?) years ago on sale at Joann’s.  I have worked it HARD and it has been dying piece by piece for some time–first the buttonhole function stopped working, then it stopped winding bobbins, and just recently the stitch selector froze up and the machine started having intermittent tension problems.  I’ve been hemming and hawing about what to do, then on Tuesday or Wednesday I made up my mind to start looking for a used machine.  Not ancient, as I wanted zig zag and reverse and the ability to do buttonholes, but something sturdy and reliable.

On Thursday afternoon, I sat down in front of my computer to check out Facebook while I had my coffee.  And there was a post from SCRAP about the two sewing machines they had put out on the floor to sell, an old Kenmore and a newish Singer.  I chugged my coffee, got in the car, and ran down there.  The Singer looked nice–it was still in its box and everything–but I’ve never heard a single good thing about the newer Singers.  And that Kenmore was all metal, sturdy, simple, and clean inside and out.  All for $30.

When I got home, I found a couple of YouTube videos showing how to use the machine–how I love the internet!–and I managed to fill a bobbin, thread it, and start sewing.  You guys, this thing is GREAT.  I used to sew on my grandmother’s old Kenmore (a similar, possibly newer, machine is here), and this has all the advantages of that machine without the disadvantages (I’m still a little amazed that I used to lug that 50-pound beast to quilt classes, then haul it up the stairs to my old third-floor apartment afterwards).  And the stitches are beautiful.

As always, all credit goes to Natalie from Threads and Bobbins for getting us all going on this Sunday Sevens business.

I hope you all have a great week, and that your stitches are nice and even.

STH

 

WIP Wednesday: Pretty and Practical

Tags

bags, DIY, sewing, travel, WIP Wednesday

Today needs a lot of pretty colors, I’ve decided.

(WIP = work in progress)

I’m not sure how it happened, but I’m suddenly in the midst of about 12 projects here.   And my sewing room–even AFTER this morning’s clean-up–looks it.  I did actually finish a thing, though, so let’s take a look at that first.

This project was the result of a happy convergence between this situation . . .

. . . and the new fat quarters that I won recently.

I’m a little bit picky about oven mitts (as you get about things that you use all the time) and this one was my favorite because it was wider than most (so it fit my weird wide hands) and it had that handy metal ring on it so that I could sling it back up on its hook with one hand.  So I decided to make a couple of new mitts with these same features.

I used the mitt pattern here, but widened it a bit.  For the padding, I used a layer of Insul-Bright and one of thin cotton batting, as the Insul-Bright instructions recommended.

Are these fabrics fun or what?

These were a bit challenging to quilt, what with all the layers in there, but I do like how the extra batting makes the quilting show up.  Can’t vouch for their ability to protect my hands from heat, though, as I haven’t used them yet (poor planning on my part!)

The blue fabric I used for the lining, binding, and loops came from the stash.

I didn’t have the patience to bind the raw seam allowances, but I’m thinking oven mitts don’t get washed all that often, anyway.  They’re wide enough that if I need to re-sew the seams later, I’ll be able to do it.

Let’s see, what else am I planning?

Well, there’s the Sew Together Bag, which I have been lusting after for a while (don’t judge).  I actually purchased the pattern at full price–such is the depth of my desire.  😉

I’ve got this long-term goal of paring down the amount of stuff I bring with me when I travel, and I’m thinking this bag might be a good way of organizing my toiletries.  I need it to coordinate with the three travel bags I use regularly–travel is no excuse for not being FABULOUS, my darlings–so I’m planning to make the exterior a patchwork of various olive-y, sage-y greens.

I’m having a hard time judging whether this bag will actually be big enough, so I want to try it out on our next weekend away in a couple of weeks.

Just some of the green scraps I’ve pulled out of the stash for this.

There’s also the Cloudsplitter Summit Pack, which I bought back in November, also for travel.  This is going to have a Laurel Burch applique on the outside pocket and use various stash fabrics for the rest of it.  I have a feeling this is going to be very purple.

I’ve also cut out the blue McCall’s 7571 blouse I mentioned earlier.  And some progress has been made on Mending Mountain–the things that just needed quick repairs are done, and now I need to take a couple of “before” pictures and get to work on my refashioning projects.

That’s not actually all of the things in the works here, but it’s probably enough for one post.  😉  I hope you have an excellent Wednesday with plenty of color.

STH

Sunday Sevens 04-02-17

Tags

cats, Columbia Park, Columbia River, Shelby, Sunday Sevens

Shelby is very serious about her cuddle time.

Hi, everybody, and I hope you’re all having (or had) a great weekend!

I missed Sunday Sevens last week, as I was knee-deep in baby quilting, so let’s see what’s been happening over here.

Some fun stuff has been showing up in the mail!  I won these fat quarters from Kelly at My Quilt Infatuation . . .

. . . and these charm squares, some gridded interfacing, and a Craftsy class from Caroline at Sew Can She!

Two of those fat quarters have already gone into a small project that I’m hoping to finish tonight.

Now that the weather’s a bit better, I’m taking my mother out for walks again.  The grass is greening up nicely, with the trees close behind; the forsythia is already glowing, as are the willow trees (yep, willow trees in the desert . . . I don’t get it, either).

But what’s that stuff on the right side of the picture there?

Tasting it didn’t seem like a super-great idea, but this ground cover looks and smells just like a wild type of parsley.

All sorts of flora and fauna down here by the river . . . .

Asparagus is starting to show up in stores here, though I don’t think the local crop is in yet.  This made a nice side dish for my bacon-spinach-tomato-avocado sandwich.

And one more shot of Shelby, just because she’s so cute with her lopsided exclamation point markings.  I was cradling her with my left arm, shooting like mad with my right hand, and trying not to move and make her run away.  She’s been through some rough times with humans, and she’s still working on that whole trust thing.

As always, the ever-fabulous Natalie at Threads and Bobbins gets credit for starting Sunday Sevens.

Have a wonderful week and I hope there’s some cuddle time in there for ya.

STH