Monthly Sewing Update

It worked!  It worked!  I sewed so I would have something to say here.  

True confession time.  I didn’t finish the whole post last time before it autoposted in January.  I meant to list all the WIPs (Works in Progress) that I want to work on this year and then show if there is any progress in each one.

2019 Color Challenge

This is a new project.  I figured I could handle one beginner block each month and actually end up with a quilt for someone.  The second block was a simple one to be done in pink.  

The word fabric was left over from a baby quilt for a kid who is about 6 or 7 now.

I found out recently that a few people I work with don’t like polka dots.  They find them creepy.  They are obviously wrong.  I love polka dots.  I have a lot of dot fabrics at home.

On Ringo Lake

This was 2017 (shut up) mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter.  I did really well making all my pieces on the weekly schedule.  There are hundreds and hundreds of pieces.  And then it sat.  I had an unexpected day off work during the super cold spell so I decided to spend it sewing.  I went downstairs meaning to work on something else but I saw this and decided to work on it instead.

By the end of the first day I had turned this:

into this:

Typical behavior for me would then be to wander off never to work on this again for months. But that didn’t happen! I came back the next day and worked on it again. I ordered a backing for it even.

I had helpers.

Powder used to lay right by the sewing machine and I always told her that it was a miracle that she never got her tail sewn. She never really got close though. This was my first time sewing with the Lucy-kitten. She decided that she could catch the moving machine needle between her front paws. I screamed, “Noooooooooooooo!” at her so loud that she went off and pouted because I scared her. Better hurt feelings than sewn together paws.

I’ve even kept going.  I’ve decided to quilt this in a simple all over pattern.  I’m going to quilt this in sections using a Quilt as You Go technique.  I’ve ordered the stencil and received the backing fabric.  Here is the first section put together.

Look what that kitten did to my high class design wall!

De La Promenade

This is destined to hang above the daybed in my cat/music room/library. The whole room was painted to show it off. Now I just need to finish it. It is fusible applique and quilt-as-you go. This is what I meant to work on when I got restarted on On Ringo Lake.

This is the third panel. This is fusible applique that is then sewed down/quilted in one step. I finished quilting the second swan so this panel is done. Now I need to start tracing panel four.

Monthly Sewing Update

I’m making this post in a fit of optimism on January 1.  It is going to be a monthly update on what I’m sewing.  The idea is that if I don’t have anything new to say at this time each month, I’ll be so embarrassed.  Therefore, I need to sew something, anything, so I have something to blog about.  Let’s see how well this works. (I only finished 1 quilt in 2018. Mind you, I started bunches of stuff…)

2019 Color Challenge

I found this on New Year’s Day and made my block for January on the first.  I was an overachiever this month.  The fussy cut center didn’t really work but I don’t care.  It got me sewing.

How to Make the Ironing Board of Your Dreams

I am lucky enough to have a dedicated sewing room in my basement.  When we moved in I wanted to get some storage built.  The husband found someone to do it.  The plan was brilliant if I do say so myself.  I wanted two floor to ceiling cabinets with a huge ironing board overtop of stacks of drawers.  The idea was to be able to lay out a whole quilt top and iron the longest seams.

I got the two cabinets fairly quickly.  Then, crickets.  He never came back to do the drawers.  Never.  The husband would see him around and ask and it was clear that part two of the project was never going to happen.

Fast forward to now.  I was trying to figure out how to make it myself.  I thought about getting dressers or stock cabinets or something.  Then, we ended up breaking down Z’s room since she is not able to come back here anymore.  She has a dresser.  It was only 4 feet long so it didn’t fill the whole space but it was available and free.  I cleared out the plastic tubs I was using to store my smaller pieces of fabric by color.  The fabric lives in the dresser now.  We put the dresser in that space on furniture sliders so I can move it around fairly easily.  Ideally, I wanted it on wheels because the ironing surface needs to be a bit away from the wall so you can drop the already pressed area down behind the board.  Since there will be a gap, I know I will drop other stuff.  I wanted to be able to move it so stuff wouldn’t be lost forever.

I went to Lowe’s and got a very sturdy piece of plywood.  I had them cut it to 2 feet by 8 feet.

I placed it on the dresser.  I had some thick batting.  I put one layer on the board and stapled it in place.

I bought 3 yards of Kona Steel for the cover.  I stapled that in place making sure to pull it tight.

I moved the dresser back into place and centered the board on it. I had brackets to put on the side of the dresser to support the edges of the board but I forgot that the dresser had a fancy lip on it. The brackets won’t lay flat. The board I chose is very sturdy so for now I’m leaving it alone. If it starts to bow later I’ll find some way to fix it.

I added a flat wall plug extension cord to the plug behind the dresser. I used a command hook to keep the cord in reach. My iron doesn’t have an off button. If it is plugged in, it is on. I keep the iron to the left because I am left handed.

I still had the issue of the dresser not reaching all the way across the space. I wanted it to look more finished so I bought some tension rods and the cheapest curtains on Amazon to hide my scrap bin.

The whole project cost under $100 (not counting the initial purchase price of the dresser) and took less than an hour to complete. I have one unintended consequence though.

Now hanging out in the sewing room with Mommy is more comfortable. Soon after this picture he was sprawled out full length. He doesn’t understand why he can’t play with the iron though. I may need to find a way to wall mount the iron so this fool doesn’t burn himself.

WIP Wednesday

Look! I’m sewing. I mean, sure, I list quilting as one of my major hobbies but I hadn’t been doing much of it.

Recently I started working on two projects out of the gazillion I have in pieces in my sewing room.

De La Prominade by Quilt Fusion

I saw this pattern on Instagram when they were testing it. I had to have it even though it was completely impractical. It is a bed sized quilt when done, which I don’t need. I can make it a bit smaller by leaving off the outer borders. If I hang it, it would need to go horizontal and I don’t think I have a big enough spot. I still don’t care. I love it.

This is the center block. You trace the pattern pieces onto paper backed fusible web. Then you cut out all the pieces and build it.

 

A post shared by (@dvmheather) on Feb 11, 2017 at 1:33pm PST

 
This block sits above the carousel block. This is designed to be quilt as you go. That’s nice because you don’t need to maneuver a big quilt through the machine. After I made the block I spray basted it to batting. Then I free motion quilt around all the pieces. Once the whole thing is together and quilted you add the backing fabric and quilt around the blocks to hold it all together.

 

A post shared by (@dvmheather) on May 20, 2017 at 9:56am PDT

This is the block below the carousel.

I also started on a snail quilt that I’ve had the pattern for for a while. The husband, who thinks he’s funny said, “That sounds like a slow project.” It turns out to be pretty quick though. I made all the bodies in one sitting. Then I’ve been making a few shells at a time. The finished lap sized quilt has 60 snails.

 

A post shared by (@dvmheather) on Jul 11, 2017 at 2:10pm PDT

 

A post shared by (@dvmheather) on Jul 13, 2017 at 12:13pm PDT

 

A post shared by (@dvmheather) on Jul 30, 2017 at 8:00am PDT

Bad Attitude Sewing

It is no secret that I hate Disney stuff.  Before 2008 I was mainly just not that interested but since then I’ve been dealing with an autistic child whose obsessions are always Disney and something else.  The something else varies but Disney stays the same.  That means at any given time she only has two topics of conversation and she talks nonstop.  I want to scream, “Please, for the love of all that is holy, shut the $%# up about Disney!!” but that is considered rude.  For the last year she has been obsessing about Disney cruises to the point that she knows the layout of all the ships and the number of bars.  She gave me a whole monologue this weekend about how I have failed her father because I am holding him back from going on a Disney cruise.  Explaining that her father thinks going on a Disney cruise would be a new level of hell that Dante hadn’t even imagined didn’t work.

The child and her mother are going on a Disney cruise in June.  This weekend when I went to pick up the child, the mother held out a bag and said, “We were wondering if you could make this up this weekend.  I mean, if you can’t we can do it with Grandma.”  Note the lack of a please, thank you, or question in there.  The child explained that I needed to make something for them for their cruise.  The level of stabby was high before this project even started.

Apparently, on Disney cruises you need something called a fish extender.  There is a fish decoration on the door and you hang pockets from it and people give you presents.

They provided me with fleece and a nasty crunchy fabric with glitter that dulled my blade and needle.  I decided to make it fancy and then threatened to sign it so they had to think of me every time they saw it.

I cut two pieces of fleece 8″ x 24″. I layered them with batting in between.

I sewed 1/4″ along the long sides to hold them together.

I cut the pocket fabric 6″ x 11″. That was suggested on other sites I read in order to make pleated pockets. I folded over the top and bottom and topstitched the top so it wouldn’t fray. I didn’t stitch the bottom. I figured it will get sewn down when it gets sewn on the background.

Of course I had to get fancy and fussy cut the Tinkerbells. Pin the sides, center the design, and then fold the pleats. I just eyeballed this.

I did a double row of stitching across the bottom to reinforce that weight bearing seam and to make sure I caught the folded edge. I started with the first pocket at the bottom and then put two inches between the pockets. I bound the edges with the Tinkerbell fabric.

I put a fleece hanging pocket on the back for a dowel rod.

One finished fish extender (what a stupid name!). The husband has helpfully pointed out that there was no thank you forthcoming from either of them. I just love making projects for hateful people!

In happier sewing news, I started sewing the fourth row onto my hexie quilt.

The Tale of a UFO

A long, long time ago I made a quilt top.  I didn’t make it for anything in particular.  I was doing it mostly to use up some really strange and ugly fabrics that I had.  It was a Scrappy Trips top.  Quilters might remember that a year or two ago this became a cool top to make.  Everyone was doing it.  I had a total hipster moment as I watched all the pictures of it pop up while I thought, “I did that before it was cool.”

I don’t remember exactly what year I made the top.  I know where I was living at the time.  The top moved houses with us once.  It got put aside because I tried to free motion quilt spirals into it and the tension was wonky.  It got put in time out to think about its poor behavior and it stayed there.

When I got to my new job a coworker said that she liked quilts that didn’t match.  I told her that I had just the top for her and that I would finish it and give it to her.  That was vague.  I need deadlines.  I have made a few quilts for other people having babies in the office since then.  Each time I mention a quilt she half-jokingly asks where her quilt is.

So I decided to make it for her birthday.  Her birthday is in February.  Last July that sounded like a good idea.

In October I thought that maybe I should think about working on it.  I thought about it in November and December too.  Somewhere along the way it had gotten half quilted with an all over pattern.  How hard was that going to be to finish up?  Plenty of time.

In January I thought I really should get serious.  I looked up her birthday hoping it was the 28th.  It was the 3rd.  I absolutely had to finish the quilting on January 30.  I didn’t even start.  I got up early before work on the 31st and knocked out a lot of it.  I talked to other another coworker that day about party plans.  (This is the birthday of the coworker that plans the birthday parties for everyone else in the year so we have to step up.)  I said that the birthday was Monday.  She told me it was Tuesday.  My brain said, “Plenty of time!” because my brain is stupid and forgets I work all day Monday.   I forced myself to get it finished on Sunday.

So many years and 2 days later, I have a finish.

One totally unmatching quilt ready to go.

Please tell me that someone else does this too or is every other quilter out there good at finishing projects before the moment they are due?

Coming up

This Saturday is National Sew Day for Quilts of Valor.  I’m planning on sewing together the quilt that’s been on my design wall since last May. It was part of a huge push we did for a Memorial Day presentation. When I realized we had enough without it, it sat.

I’m also going to join the Hazel the Hedgehog quilt a long hosted by Gnome Angel. I bought the pattern in December intending to get a Christmas wall hanging done by December 2015.  As I’ve confessed in this post, I need a deadline.  I will finish the top by the end of the quilt a long.