Stitch Rabbit

Old Quilt (Renamed)

I've got an old friend with me in the sewing room tonight. I pulled the suitcase down and pulled out my strips and started making blocks again. You may remember, I have pulled this "old quilt" out and put this quilt away many times over the year. A block here and there. What I like about it is the carefree process of it. No measuring, no math, just cut and sew and see how it goes. I bring it out whenever I feel overwhelmed by all the other projects I have on the go, or when I'm stuck staring at my fabric trying to decide what to make next. Does this ever happen to you?

I've got piles of spring colors stacked all over the place, with big dreams for skirts and dresses and vests...but I can't get the wheels in motion. I don't feel like measuring or cutting straight lines or making perfect seams. I wanted to sew today, but it wasn't fresh fabric and clean lines I craved. I wanted to wing it. So, it was the old quilt, which today, I have happily renamed "Let's Just See What Happens"

 

Introducing The New Quilt

Okay...I may have a few more handstitches to do on the binding, but I just couldn't wait any longer to pin up my finished quilt, shoot some photos and show you all.

It's named the very-lucky-you-got-made-first New Quilt (see Old Quilt) and it was really fun and easy to make. I wanted to use mostly floral in saturated reds, purples and greens, and give it a very busy, moody look. I think I achieved that. The striped borders evens out the floral to me, gives them flowers a boundary. Back off floral, stay behind the line. The backing, not shown, is a green like the one you see in the borders, the binding a very deep red. Being the second quilt I've ever made, I'm more than pleased. I may wear this one out and about, show it off a little. Perhaps drape it like a toga, or even a sarong, maybe wrap the entire quilt around my neck - big neckwarmers are hot this season.

Well, maybe I won't wear it like a girl about town, but it just may sneak into the background of most of my photos for the next little while. Proud rabbit.

Back To Health!! Back To Work!!

Alright, glad that week's over. I thought we'd turned the corner but there was more sick to come....finally, finally life is returning to normal. Frankie's color is coming back, and she's tap dancing in the kitchen again. Charlie is able to live for more than five seconds with out me holding him, on the couch, not knitting, in one special position only, patting his back just so. I forgot about the baby sick. The mama ain't going nowhere. Not to the bathroom, not to get a tea, not anywhere. Permanent seat on the couch for as long as it takes. This time? Four days, going on five. They're still hacking and sniffling and totally inappropriate to take anywhere in public, but it's over. So glad it's over....

Now it's back to work - for all of us. Gabe spent the afternoon moving the compost to a better spot, and up on some planks for better air circulation. He also moved what was the very full and very dangerous water barrel from it's high perch on a not-so sturdy table to a much sturdier, secure spot in the corner near the tool shed. (Every time the kids went near it this winter I yelled "GIT BACK FROM THE BARREL! IT COULD SQUISH YOU LIKE A BUG!" which leads me to believe my neighbors must really - really think I'm nuts.) And I can't believe it's time to pick my seeds already. Sheesh.

For me, there hasn't been much action in the sewing room or even on the sticks, due to the fever babies. I did get a little treat this week at the doorstep and I've been drooling over it for last few days...it's a book that's been out for a while, in fact there is also a Material Obsession Two, but it's new to me and I love it.

Kathy and Sarah of the real-life Austrailian quilt shop by the same name do a fabulous job with this book and the quilt patterns in it. There are beginner to advanced patterns, and the fabrical (is this a word? it is now!) eye candy is enough to make me think twice about the measly size of my stash. Hey - a girl needs options, right?

Starting next week is the beginning of a couple of pillow creations for the Sew Mama Sew Pillow Month. Come by for a peek at my inspiration, my own process and my finished pillows starting Monday!

Happy Saturday Night! Time to put those kids to bed and fix a coupla drinks!

 

Quilt Binding and Tiny Sewing Lessons

I'm almost done my quilt...just finishing the binding - and I have to say I love the mitered edge of the binding. I've been following along in a book I received as a giveaway prize (Thanks Sew Mama Sew!) The book is called Simplify - Quilts For The Modern Home by Camille Roskelly. Camille does an excellent job explaining how the different components of the structure of a quilt and she gives some fantastic tips to make a great quilt. Being new to quilting, I found the book instructions simple to follow, the pictures beautiful and of course, her quilts inspirational. Next up for me: Freehand Machine Quilting. I practiced a bit with some scraps and did pretty well, though not well enough that I felt confident not to ruin this quilt with uneven scribbling, so I opted to straight line quilt this one. I think I would like to take a class in Freehand. Can't wait to try it out on a real quilt! (Maybe just a tiny, tiny quilt to start).

 

Somebody tiny and adorable also got some sewing lessons this weekend...though after the whole "Mommy sewed a needle through her finger and then almost fainted" incident, I thought she'd never go near my sewing machine again. Yikes. But she wanted to make a tiny bag for her tiny treasures, so she hand sewed for awhile, but then decided she wanted to join the big leagues. So I pulled her onto my lap and she held the fabric and stitch, stitch, we've got one tiny little bag and one very proud little girl. She'll be making her own dresses in no time!

 

Stash-Tastic.

I got my stash cupboards cleaned out and reorganized. Like I've said before, when my cupboards get messy so do I. I become a much more careless (carefree??) sewer when everything is in disarray...and I don't do well in carefree. Not when I'm supposed to be quilting....

I'm only showing you one cupboard, I'm feeling a little embarrassed to bare it all to you.... my mother reads my blog and she will forever hold it against me - she is fiercely made fun of for the size of her yarn and fabric stash - by our entire family.

 

I also cleaned house a little - not a lot, but enough to make a dent in that basket of scraps-turned-strips for that rag rug I've been talking about for the last five years..

 

I also finished my quilt top!! For the new quilt, not the old quilt. The old quilt has taken a back seat again. Again, I have to reinstate - it's not that I love any quilt more, it just happened this way. The old quilt is still a lovely, lovely quilt, it's just more time-consuming and it's just going to take me, well, more time.

I dropped by Spool of Thread last night before their evening Beginners Sewing Class (the cuties were making pillow cases!) to pick up the backing for the (new) quilt. FYI: Spool of Thread has EVERY SINGLE Kona solid now. I saw it with my own two eyes, some still wrapped in plastic. Also have a lot more fabric in, though I didn't dare look cause Gabriel was with me and I've been to the fabric stores twice this week. I'll have to go "grocery shopping" later this week.

Came home ready to make me a mean quilt sandwich and realized the batting I had planned for this quilt had a large, ironing board shaped cutout in it....oh yeah, right. I forgot about that.

So, (sigh) the quilty sandwich of love is going to have to wait till tonight...

 

 

 

What Things Are Waiting For Me

I have finally - FINALLY made myself a new ironing board cover. I just spent the last month and a half ironing on a towel - it doesn't work at all, and isn't nearly as pretty as this Free Spirit fabric...

(and to those of you that don't SEW - I do NOT iron already made clothes. Not at all, not ever. I use my ironing board for SEWING purposes, which somehow makes me less domestic, more artistic. Right?)

What is waiting for me is the piecing of the old quilt, the finishing of the new quilt and the beginning of the thirty other projects that I have waiting in the wings. That towel was holding me back, I swear.

 

I picked up some (non) floral fabric at the shop the other day and a few Kona solids. I actually muttered to myself while gazing fondly at this beautiful fabric "No Floral" and this woman next to me laughed. Glad to know I'm not the only one. I am trying to even out my stash so it's not so much the big and tiny flowers, more stripes and solids so my patchwork doesn't end up looking like a garden. Though I love me some floral...Aims will vouch for that.

What is waiting for me is my stash cupboard to be cleaned and organized. It is looking nothing like this, this or this right now. But I want it too...soooo much.

 

I went on a mama trip last week - a whirl wind one day on ferries and everything with no kids - no kids!! It was fast and hilarious and we brought knitting and I loved every second. I love being with my friends, my mamas.

What is waiting for me is the start up of a stitch and bitch, or a witch and stitch, or a drink and stitch...whatever you wanna call it I wanna start it up. Cause we all deserve a little drink with the witches and the sticks.

 

I got the very awesome privilage of watching my beautiful daughter skate with her Papa at my childhood ice rink last week as well. I can tell you that I couldn't really hide the big, wimpy, nostalgic tears that were coming down my face watching them both have So. Much. Fun.

What is waiting for me is Tuesdasy Toonie skate with my daughter, so we can make some of our own nostalgic memories.

 

I hope you all have things that are waiting for you this week...I'll let you know how the list goes.

 

 

 

A Guilty Conscience Grows A Good Quilt

 My guilty conscience has gotten to me.

During all that adoring over the new quilting fabric I had picked up at the store the other day and all during the quick execution of the blocks for it, I couldn't help but keep looking up at that suitcase on the top of my fabric armoire. I would stare at it from my sewing table, sighing heavily, thinking of the quilt inside that I had so carelessly tossed aside in favour of this new fabric. It wasn't that I loved the new fabric more - or the old quilt project less...it just happened. My attention had shifted, my enthusiasm departed for something else for the moment. A thin layer of dust blanked the top of the suitcase and the handle, the luggage tag swaying ever so gently when the heat came on...it's words haunting me in the night..."Quilt Projects"...unfinished...still..

So I've brought it back out and am bringing it home. In all it's glory. I forgot how much I love making this quilt. It's a great quilt.

 

And the blocks I just finished for that new quilt? They're at the back of the line, rightfully so. 

A finished product of cold rainy nights, and one beautiful snow day....I have made something for myself. It wasn't originally supposed to be for me - it was a hat for Frankie - but I cast on far too many stitches for a four year old head and besides - I haven't had my hair cut in a couple of months and I need a hat - really. I used a hat pattern from Erika Knight's book "Mens Knits: 20 New Classics", but elaborated to make it more of a slouchy hat, less fitted. And I added stripes. I like stripes.

 

 
The winter knitting has far from slowed down around here - I still have projects on the sticks - some of them slightly ambitious - possibly turning into spring projects as well... but I am definitely feeling the sewing surge again after the holiday crash. No deadlines, no gifts, just pure and simple "I wanna make it so I'm gonna" sewing. The new quilt is on it's way...a block here, a block there. It's very moody looking with all the purples and reds and greens, and I like it like that.

 

 

A Finished Dress and A New Quilt

A new dress for my baby girl...who's not as little as I seem to recall because the dress is shorter than I expected it to be...she loves it regardless. I didn't follow the pattern and prefer the way it turned out. Rather than just the lace on the front I added a bib with a different fabric for some pop, shortened the sleeves and added a gather on the shoulders - I'm a sucker for a sleeve gather.

 

 

I took a trip to the fabric store to add one or two more patterns to that blue/yellow/green quilt I've been planning on. Yeah right. "One or Two more fabrics"... I came across this palette of colors, got all hot and bothered in the store and walked out with an armload of fabric wondering how I was going to sneak it past my husband. I've nixed the green/blue quilt for now in favour of these fabrics...I started cutting my squares tonight. I think this one will come along quickly as my next week looks sweetly empty on the calendar...

 

 

Nice, hey? Just don't tell the year-long unfinished quilt stashed in the suitcase about this, alright?