newbie hive #5 block: flying geese

Since Purl Soho did their mini-quilt series last year I’ve wanted to do a full sized version of their July Flying Geese quilt in reds, whites and blues.  However, my resolution this year is to only buy the fabric I need to finish a project and use up more of my stash, so I wasn’t getting to make this one for a while.  But as soon as I joined the Newbie group I knew what I wanted for my month as Queen!  I love the possibilities of a red, white and blue quilt – the mix of solids and prints, and so many shades of red and blue – it just seems like the perfect thing for summer.

The following is for a 12.5 inch unfinished block.

Choose your Fabric A and Fabric B – any shade or print in red, white, and/or blue.

From Fabric A cut:

(4) 6.5 inches x 3.5 inches rectangles
(8) 3.5 inches x 3.5 inches squares

And from Fabric B cut:

(4) 6.5 inches x 3.5 inches rectangles
(8) 3.5 inches x 3.5 inches squares

First, take one square from Fabric B and place it right sides together on the left side of a rectangle from Fabric A.


To make sure your stitch line is accurate, you can draw a pencil or chalk line from corner to corner. Now sew on that pencil/chalk line (or very carefully down the diagonal of the square from the corner to the top-center of the rectangle).


Trim the seam to ¼”


...and press open.

We’re halfway done! Now sew a square to the other side of the rectangle.


Trim.....


and press open.


Repeat until all eight flying geese are done, sewing together the Fabric A squares with Fabric B rectangles and vice-versa.

Now to assemble the block, lay out the geese in two columns – Fabric A geese and Fabric B geese.


Sew the peices together either in columns or rows, but either way make sure to line up the point of the bottom rectangle with the center of the rectangle above it and pressing seams open as you go.

And you're done!


Now what should we call this? I’ve been playing with “Star-spangled Flock” or “Patriots on Parade” - any other ideas?

ready for the weekend

How is May halfway over already? Seriously, where did the month go?

I have some finished projects to post and have been enjoying time outside the last couple weekends rather than being inside behind my machine, but this weekend I need to get back to business. I have so many projects piling up again and my sewing table is a mess from it all!

On my to-do list are a good mix of projects which could easily take over my weekend.

1. Make the May block for my quilting bee group
2. Write my tutorial for my month as "Queen Bee" (June)
3. Finish the Farmers Market bag for my mom (opps belated Mother's Day gift!)
4. Finish the baby brag books for our moms (also belated Mother's Day gifts)
5. Make some Pretty Blouses with a silky brown and white dot fabric and an off-white lace I've been holding on to
6. And possibly a Ruffle Top with the white crepe I have too

I'm still determined to work on skirts with a damask jacquard and a royal blue shantung silk from my stash so I have some more bottom peices.  And I also have a pink chiffon print that I'm trying to decide what to do with. I'd like to make a simple top with it, but I can't find a pattern I like for it. Maybe another skirt? I need to pick up some linning for it.

I just got over a cold this week so I should get some rest this weekend, but I'm also eager to stay up late and sew!  It would just be really, really nice to get these piles cleaned up and have some new peices for summer.

not exactly couture

We get to take training classes at work once a year. Unfortunately these classes often present their material in the most basic fashion possible, and unfortunately it ends up being extremely simple and boring. So I take a notebook along and sketch quilt blocks and make lists. (Side note: I love lists. I have so many notebooks with so many lists for everything. And checking things off a list - so satisfying!) The training I took this year was a little better, but there was still time for me to cover a few pages in my notebook with sketches and check boxes.

This time I made a list for clothing I need to alter or make.

1. Damask Jacquard skirt based on this tutorial
2. Royal Blue Shantung silk skirt, using same tutorial but with a fuller skirt
3. Lace shirt (using another shirt for the template)
4. White crepe skirt
5. Brown and white pin dot skirt
6. Take in brown pants
7. Take in grey and maroon shirts
8. Pink print shell top with tie (pattern)
9. Finish hem and belt for purple knit dress

I've finally started to loose more pregnancy weight and all the clothing I bought when I returned to work is now way too big! I'm not complaining; I'm so glad to be loosing the weight. But I don't want to buy new clothes now since I'm only one size away from fiting into my wardrobe again. My experience with clothing is limited and it's been several years since I've made anything major (pants!). At the very least I'm hoping I can alter some of the items I bought last November and make a couple of skirts to get me through this "transition" phase. I also need to go through my pattern collection and maybe try my hand at some basics for work. It'd be nice to not look like the kid who has to wear her older sibling's clothes and maybe be a little more put-together again.

garden wall

My Garden Wall quilt is finally finished - I started this in 2012, but it'll count for 2013.

cozy

Spring only just arrived in DC. This was the first week I was able to take off the extra comforter and blankets on our bed. To remind myself it was still winter and I couldn't pack away my coats yet - no matter how ready I was for warmer weather - I started on a ruffled scarf.



I am thankful that once I finish it, I can finally pack it up for the season with the winter coats.

spring ahead

I'm not entirely sure where the last year has gone, or the last three years really. They've been filled with big life events: a cross-country move, graduate school, marriage, our first baby, and a significant family loss.  It all just seems to run together when I try to think back. But now I'm catching up and since Spring is finally here in the District, I'm looking forward and thankful for everything I have in my life right now.

This little gem is 7 months already. 

Look at that face! Happy, happy baby. I'm trying to tell her to stop growing, but she's already not listening to me.

And I'm back to my sewing table more often. I started with a conservative list of projects for the year and a good plan, but it's already snowballed into nine dedicated quilts, a sew-along and possibly a quilting bee. But my goal is to make a dent in my stash and to actually use some fabrics I've been saving (hoarding) for too long.

We'll see how this plays out.

touchup in blue

We have a large L-shaped couch that we love. It's a little big for our space, but we got a great deal on it from a friend and couldn't resist. And because it's so big we have it divided - hubby and I get one side, and the dog has the other.

Bedding for Nubs

We have a Catahoula named Nola and she's particular about where that cute little nub of her's gets to lay down. Specifically, she prefers soft, well cushioned places.  The first day we brought her home, she was curled up on the couch in five minutes. So I made a quick cover that can hold two pillows so she had her own bed.

just right

I don't know what it is, but making quilts for my cousin and her family seems to be a very difficult thing to do.

pinwheels

What do you do when your nephew turns one? Give him the quilt you started for the baby shower.

In fairness, I would have had this done on time, but I somehow picked out colors and prints that didn't go together. I had the grey-green, beige and dark and light blue solids put together, and then realized that the browns and oranges I was going to use for the larger pinwheels didn't match at. all. It was pretty disconcerting. Like I had suddenly forgotten how to tie my shoes or something.

So I picked out something else for the shower and did a second search for fabrics.

Cheers to a finished project!

It's been a long time since I finished a project. I've had at least one craft project in progress for over two years now, but between surviving graduate school and planning a wedding, crafting for anything else was just not happening. Post-wedding I purchased fabric like a fiend and had stacks ready to go for a total of six quilts and two home decor projects.

Four months later I had three works-in-progress, fabric sorted for four more quilts and a home decor project mostly done. Oh , and in the meantime I also built wedding albums for our parents and sent out tins and gift bags of Christmas cookies to our friends and family I’d been baking since October...

pink waves

Finally, I made a quilt for the oldest of the three - the sister, who is almost four.

little log cabin

I'm still learning some basics, so after the triangles I decided to try a log cabin block. 

triangles in squares

During a trip to New York, I bought a couple of fat quarter packs and half yards from Purl Soho that I planned to use for quilts for three little kids - a sister and brother, and their cousin.

 

Troubleshooting - Grey Tunic Shirt

In a fit of boredom I rearranged my apartment last night. I started to clean and decided to flip the whole room - it's a studio so there isn't a lot of space to move anything to. It took me three hours and left me with a "new" view of my apartment, plus a pile of things to take to Goodwill and a shopping list for Ikea. On the upside, I think the place is set up now for me to get a table large enough to cut and sew on and some shelving to store all my fabric and yarn in a less chaotic way.

This may also help me to get some projects done since I won't have to be constantly moving from coffee table to ironing board to kitchen table to bed in order to work. Thus why all this takes me so long and it's easy to put off whatever I'm making for another weekend. Case in point, those Built-by-Wendy shirts. Although I did finish this grey tunic shirt before I went on vacation in early August – I just wasn’t able to get this posted until now. I’m now trying to sort out the second shirt (blue button down from Sew-U) which now I might actually be able to finish in the next couple of weeks.

getting what I need

After spending a weekend in Seattle, two weekends at my parents’, two weeks in New York with my cousin, and Labor Day weekend in Sacramento with my friends, I relished my first weekend home in nearly a month. And I have to say it was exactly what I needed it to be - a couple of well rounded days with little bit of sewing, food, and futbol (both kinds).

catching up

I have never been very good at keeping a diary – and it took me several tries to figure this out – so why I thought it would be realistic for me to post at least weekly is beyond me.  And the fact that I don’t have internet at home doesn’t help either.  Anyway, excuses aside I am past due for an update on projects I’ve finished recently.

shirts!

And now I’m done with Amy Butler (for this week anyway) and have moved on to some other patterns by Wendy Mullin and her Built by Wendy line. I bought Mullin's book, Sew-U, at the same time I purchased In Stitches. It’s a fun and useful tutorial for anyone looking to get into sewing garments and how to work with patterns. While I’ve yet to find the patience needed to learn how to make a pattern fit me before cutting my fabric, and I have every intention on buying a dressform when I move into a larger place (450 square feet really isn’t very much space when you have your bedroom, living room and craft room all together), getting to work with patterns and learning how to change the design has been, well, fun!

a roll of the dice

I have made a lot of Amy Butler projects lately for two reasons: there was a period where I was obsessed with her fabrics and am now catching up with the projects I planned; and I bought her book, In Stitches, and keep finding uses for various items. And so in looking through the book for the umpteenth time I saw the quilt pattern and decided to go for it since it would be a good way to incorporate multiple prints within a color scheme. K’s wedding colors were red, black and white. She is a little bit punk, a little bit emo and is into graphic arts and art nouveau, anything with skulls and knives, and loves roses and gerbera daisies (guess which are her favorite colors?). I tried to keep all of that in mind when looking for fabrics.

backstory

Growing up, I had five girl friends that as individuals couldn’t be more different from each other, but we came to see each as a part of ourselves. We have now been friends for over 15 years and I can’t play favorites with any of these incredible women, especially when I know how lucky I am to have had them with me nearly all my life.