Worker Bee

I'm on a sewing kick at the moment. It's a nice place to be, especially since I haven't been in the mood to sew in months. I can feel it starting to burn out already though, so I have to pace myself. I was commissioned to make two baby quilts (and the woman took me to the fabric store and paid for it all! SCORE), so I can't burn out yet.

I've been chipping away at my scrap bin this week. First I made this out of some half square triangles, and then decided to make more quilts like it. But the "just like it" part didn't pan out as expected. Instead, I made three other quilts that do NOT look anything like Quilt 1.

QUILT 2.

I LOVED making this quilt. Holy crap. I think the colors all work together so nicely and everything is pointing up instead of diagonally and this just makes me feel so happy to look at. It reminds me of a basket of cherries.

QUILT 3.

I had four leftover wonky blocks from this quilt, and I've been sitting on them for over a year and a half. I finally just slapped them together and decided it's the perfect size for a 1-ish year old to carry around and not smother themselves with. 

QUILT 4.

Literally finished this one an hour ago. It's Flea Market Fancy fabric, just like Quilt 2. But I had four HSTs left and some squares, blah blah blah, quilt. I really like these patchwork quilts, they're quick to make and I love how crisp they look. And I have some big dreams for how to quilt it, too.

None of these are being made for anyone in particular. I figured I would just make a slew of quilts and sell/give them away to people as I see fit. They're all on the small side, I'll give proper measurements later. But they're small enough for toddlers to carry around, it's just their size! OR small enough to hang on the wall of your quilt studio!

I have a feeling that Quilt 2 is staying with me.

The gang's all here! I use white a lot.

Leftovers

I have a gift for maximizing the use of my fabric. Since I'm kind of broke and have to prioritize how I spend my money (new brake rotors, yes; new fabric, no) I try to use every bit of scrap and leftover fabric that I can. This is how I was able to make three quilts out of the fabric I pulled for one quilt.

While I was making the Swoon Quilts, I noticed how much fabric I was tossing into the scrap bin while trimming flying geese units. So I figured out an easy way to turn those triangle scraps into Half-Square Triangles, so I ended up with a butt-load of geese and HST's from that project.

The half-square triangles have been sitting around for, oh, I don't know, nearly a YEAR before I finally decided to do something with them. I have enough for three small baby quilts (four if I do something with the original triangle scraps), plus some blocks for an additional quilt.

I'm drowning in usable fabrics :)

But anyway look what I made!

Pink Scraps

I caught a cold when I came home from Bonnaroo. I'd been dealing with it all last week, and it was getting worse the closer I got to the weekend. Naturally, I should've taken it easy and rested all weekend, especially when I woke up Saturday with no voice.

That is not what I did.

I went to Firefly Music Festival in Dover, DE with some friends on Saturday. Get up early, drive 2 hours, listen to music all day, stay out late, drive home late, get to sleep around 4am. GREAT for people with colds. But I did rest all of Sunday!

 

Bryana, Abby, Jen, and Mattie- and the singer from Twenty One Pilots, who climbed on top of the sound booth.

I'm a sturdy base.

Sunday was FINALLY a sewing day. The problem with only having time on the weekends to sew and traveling most weekends is that I don't ever get a chance to work. But I FINALLY got a chance to play with the pile of Half-Square Triangles I have left over from those Swoon Quilts I made for Christmas/Hanukkah. 

I've decided to make three baby-sized quilts with the fabric I have left over. They're still going to be small, probably around 30" square, but I would much rather put these bits of fabric to good use than let them sit in my scrap bin. And hey, I already know the colors work well together, since I, you know, made a quilt out of them already.

 

 

Four little squares, about 11"x11"- AND SO ADORABLE

I also have a butt ton of scraps, so I'll be making a little patchwork quilt too. And some 9-patches for the center and corners of this pink quilt. And probably a triangle-y quilt/potholder as well. Who knows? The world of fabric is expansive and has many opportunities.

Laid out some 9 patches. The squares are 1.5"x1.5"

And some sashing! But the cleaning ladies messed up my layout and now I have a square missing.

 

Piles of squares and triangles!

And my mess of a desk.

Catching Up- No. 2

I spent the last week at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN. CJ has been going for 6 years now, and I started joining him last year. Festivals are so much fun, they're full of music that you've been listening to for years and music that's just waiting for you to walk by and catch a chord. And there's never enough time to see it all.

Bonnaroo is by far the friendliest festival I've been to. Everyone there treats Bonnaroo like a holiday, with free hugs and high fives and good vibes and an upbeat attitude. It's so easy to make new friends while waiting for an act to start or while waiting in line for food. I definitely made some new friends, and I plan on keeping in touch with them and meeting up again at next Bonnaroo (since I won two tickets for next year's festival! YES!)

Favorite Sets (in no particular order)

- Jack White (CJ and I sang enthusiastically to Love Interruption)

- Phoenix (They played Love Like a Sunset, my favorite! And I helped the lead singer crowd surf)

- Cake (They played Stick Shifts and Safety Belts, my mom's favorite)

- John Butler Trio (HE PLAYED OCEAN OH MY GOD)

-Kansas Bible Company (A small band I saw in Nashville last New Year's)

-Taran Killam, from SNL (He performed Boy Dance Party and the Sloppy Swish)

-Disclosure (Sam Smith came out to sing, it was fantastic)

Anyhoo. On my way home, I stopped to visit my Grandma. I had some furniture to pick up and take to Blacksburg, and she had some delicious food to fill out bellies with. We were talking during the meal and she chastised me for not uploading my blog (sorry Grandma!), so here is post number two.

After Anna's travelling quilt came and went, I received Allison's! I remember the blocks she initially made- she tried paper piecing for the first time, and her use of color was fantastic. But as I opened the package, I noticed that everyone who had made pieces had contributed four 12.5"x12.5" blocks. So I went online and found four block patterns that I really liked. I used DelewareQuilts.com, they have tons of patterns. 

The Alpine Cross

Card Tricks

Shoofly Variation 

(Which I now realize is pieced wrong... I need to fix that)

Monkey Wrench

When I was selecting the colors for these blocks, they looked a lot more epic next to each other without the white background. I really like how the Alpine Cross turned out, but I'm feeling a little self conscious that the blocks I made just aren't enough. I was going for a downward spiral effect with Money Wrench, having the colors fade darker and darker, and I think it turned out nicely, but I don't know. I'm just self conscious. I haven't been able to sew much lately, so I feel off my game.

I did end up with a few half square triangles that I'm going to throw into the bag when I mail it off. I'm thinking of turning the scraps into a bunch of 2.5" squares, so maybe Allison can piece them together and turn them into sashing or something. I just don't know, I don't want to impose my ideas too much onto this quilt.

HSTs!

Also, this is my sewing dungeon now. I've gone from the spare bedroom in my apartment in Blacksburg, to my bedroom in Richmond, to the basement at my mom's in Nashville, to the loft in Alexandria, and now back into a basement. This is by far the least inspiring place I've sewn in. But I'm planning on working on my sewing this Sunday, so hopefully I can pull out of this rut.

 

Catching Up- No. 1

Times are busy. Every weekend I'm traveling somewhere- to home in Richmond, to Blacksburg to see CJ, to music festivals. I'm enjoying it, but it's tiring, and it really doesn't leave me much time for sewing, much less for blogging about it.

So the next few posts here will be updates about things I've been doing!

I had a really fun time putting together pieces for Anna's traveling quilt. Her color choices are really nice, I like the use of black as a background. I've been wanting to make some economy blocks, and I saw an opportunity with Anna's quilt.

 

 

Economy blocks are so much fun. And Anna put a GREAT variety of prints in her box, made for some great picking.

I used the leftover bits to make this block.

HUZZAH