Project Night Night finish

My first quilt for Project Night Night is finished and ready for donation! Earlier in the summer I found three charm packs of Moda's Fresh line by Deb Strain and two orphan blocks made from those same fabrics in my stash.

Thing 2 laid out all the squares with the blocks to arrive at a 49.5" x 58.5" size. I pieced the top and then delivered it to my long-arm quilter Carol who quilted an all-over pattern of swirls, dragonflies, and flowers in an orange thread.

The two large blocks finished at 13.5", so you can get an idea of the scale of the flowers and dragonflies from this picture. I'm hoping some little girl will have fun looking for and counting them across the surface of this quilt.

For the backing I used two larger pieces of fabric from the same line that I had on hand. I wonder what my original intent was for these fabrics?

I also had the batting on hand, so I'm proud to say that this project was created entirely from my stash. The binding was machine sewn on both the front and back sides so the quilt can stand up to lots of love and washings :)

The Crystal Lake Modern Quilt Guild's first donation to Project Night Night was delivered in August - 12 bags each containing a quilt, book, and stuffed animal. We're on target to donate over 20 more bags in October! I'm so proud of the way the ladies from our new little guild have responded to this worthwhile cause!

You can read more about Project Night Night here.

my new favorite fall skirt

Are you tired of seeing photos of my skirt creations yet? I hope not, because after this one I've still got one more to show!

This is a tiered version from The Essential A-Line by Jona Giammalva. The book version has four different fabric tiers, but I've included just two here because I love that main fabric so much.

Fabrics shown are Kaffe's Lotus Leaf in Umber used as the main skirt fabric and his Violets in Ochre used as the bottom tier. I added the Kaffe Shot Cotton in Prune as the bias binding between the fabrics and at the hem.  This one looks fabulous with a lavender tee and jean jacket!

Once again I used a centered back zipper rather than the side invisible zipper shown in the book. These skirts are very easy to make (especially when you've worked the process six times!), but just in case I ever need to alter the sizing, the center back zipper will allow me to take in or let out the side seams to adjust the fit without ripping out the zipper. A side seam invisible zipper is less conducive to alterations.

This skirt is lined with a poly/cotton blend broadcloth and includes a waistband facing, just like many of the others I've made. You can see more of my Essential A-Line skirts and read more details about how I've constructed them by clicking here and here.

Next up for skirts - inverted pleats!

P.S. If you are a local reader, my two-session Essential A-Line basic skirt class will be held on Fridays, November 1 and 15 from 6:00-9:00pm.

these skirts aren't just for summer

These are fall skirts! I've now finished three more skirts using the book The Essential A-Line by Jona Giammalva (previously blogged about here.)

I cannot say enough good things about this book! As you probably know, I love skirts, and this book is by far the best one I've seen to help you make your own fitted pattern that can be varied in so many ways.

The first skirt here is the basic A-Line constructed as directed in the book. It has a side seam invisible zipper and traditional (slippery fabric!) lining. What do you think of that fabric? I can wear ANY color with it! It is called "Effervescence" in Jewel by Robert Kaufman. The fabric is printed with a border running along the selvage on one side, but I was able to cut around that.

Can you see that zipper? No, you cannot, because it is invisible!

Next up is a variation of the basic A-Line. You may recognize this AMH print because I already have another skirt made from it!

This time I changed the pattern from the book to utilize a center-back zipper installation. Since I'm going to be teaching some beginning sewists how to make these skirts, I think a regular centered zipper is far easier to master than an invisible one.

I also added an interfaced waistband facing to this version because I think it helps the skirt to lay better around your middle section.

The lining is a poly/cotton blend broadcloth that is layered together with the main fabric, so it does not hang freely as a traditional skirt lining would. This gives the skirt a bit of a heavier feel (perfect for cooler weather!) while still blocking out any sunshine "see-through".

The hem is encased in a bias binding - one of the hem variations shown in the book. This fabric is one of my all-time favorites: Paperweight in Gypsy by Kaffe Fassett.

And lastly, my version of the book's Patchwork skirt. The author made her patchwork skirt with all 5" squares, but I was inspired by another skirt I saw over the summer made from many different sized cuts of fabrics. I got together with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and we each made one of these skirts (similar but different due to fabric layout) utilizing a shared set of 16 fat quarters. I'll share another post soon with photos of that sewing session - so fun!

Again I added the center-back zipper and waist facing.

And the bias binding hem. This hem fabric is Oval Elements in Licorice by Art Gallery Fabrics.

These three fall beauties are now hanging in the window of my LQS advertising my upcoming November class! I've structured the beginning basic skirt class in two three-hour sessions to be held in the evenings.

Then in 2014 I'm planning to add more classes so students can make some of the book's variations of the basic A-Line skirt. Currently there are two versions on the cutting table in my sewing room - the inverted pleat skirt and the tiered skirt - with a Friday deadline! Must get busy sewing!

Enjoy the week!!

Fall Back quilt

Fall is nearly upon us here in the Midwest. It's one of my favorite times of year - cooler days, brightly colored leaves, apples, and all things pumpkin. Life is good here in the fall. A couple of weekends ago the September/October issue of Midwest Living magazine arrived in my mailbox, and after reading through it I couldn't get the idea of a fall quilt out of my head. Yes, I have quite a few other projects that need to be finished, and yes, I have two classes coming up very quickly that I need to prep for, but we really need a fall quilt, don't we?

Enter the super quick and easy St. Louis 16-patch block. I've no idea why it's called the "St. Louis 16-patch", but that's the name popping up all over the internet, so let's just go with it!

I had several almost-FQ-sized fall themed scraps in my stash from some projects I made a few years ago. And I supplemented those scraps with this cute and more contemporary stack of FQs purchased at the recent Madison, WI quilt show.

These blocks are so easy to make: cut four equal width strips from each scrap or FQ, pair two matching strips with two other matching strips of a different fabric and sew them together as shown below. I cut my strips at 3.5" width by about 16"-18" length. You can cut your strips any width you choose - I think the standard is 2.5" for this block. But that yields only an 8" finished block, and I needed mine to be bigger (so I could finish the quilt faster!), so I cut my strips at 3.5" to create 12" finished blocks.

I pressed all the seam allowances to the darker fabric, and then cut four 3.5" width pieces from each strip set. The larger piece on the right is leftover. Why is it that making scrap quilts always yields MORE scraps?!

Flip pieces one and three and you've got your 16-patch layout! Sew these together to make one complete block.

These blocks are an excellent project to have around for times when you've only got 15 or 30 minutes here and there for sewing (or when you've got a bunch of projects in progress that you really don't want to work on - "avoidance sewing" coined by my pal Venus de Hilo). After you've chosen the fabrics and decided on the width you want to cut your strips, there really isn't too much thinking involved until the final layout. This would also be a great retreat or sew-in project.

Two FQs (or large scrap pieces) yield two blocks. My quilt has 35 blocks and will finish at 60" x 84" - almost big enough for a twin bed and generously sized for napping or movie-watching on the couch on those chilly fall weekends :)

And as for the newly generated scraps...

They have been repurposed into a table runner!

I'm delivering the quilt top to the long-arm quilter tomorrow, and hopefully it will be back in early October - the height of beautiful fall weather!

this took forever

At least it felt like forever! These two little 8" blocks were my first assignment in the latest Amitie Textiles Block of the Month program, "Bring Me Flowers" Each previous BOM they have put together has been spectacular, and in the past I've always kicked myself for not joining as I watched my online friends churning out all these amazing blocks. So this year I jumped in!

I'm going to spare you all the gritty details about every misstep I've made, but the basic story is this: these blocks are intended to be hand-pieced. My hand-piecing skills are quite rusty, so I intend to machine piece where I can and muddle through or improvise the rest. The real treat is the eclectic assortment of beautiful fabrics they send each month, and since I didn't want to waste any of them, I wisely decided to make a test block first with some scraps. That's where the "wisdom" ended for me on this journey.

Thinking I was a pretty smart cookie, I decided that those double pinwheels could be easily machine pieced by making some smaller half-square-triangles (HSTs), cutting those into quarter-square triangles (QSTs) and then sewing the QSTs to another larger triangle.

Uhhh, what just happened?

Try #2. Okay, I'll cut all the triangles and forget about that brilliant shortcut that was neither brilliant nor a shortcut.

So far, so good. Poor fabric choices, but you get the idea - these blocks look correct.

Woo-hoo! Double pinwheels made with the real fabrics look great!

Then on to the "basket" section. I cut one large square of the basket fabric and two smaller squares of the background fabric to sew diagonally and make the triangles at each corner. And I spent quite a bit of time calculating how big the background squares needed to be. Not enough time apparently, because both were incorrect and the basket was too large on the first try and too small on the second try. Oh, and when the basket construction started, I was feeling pretty sure of myself and used the real fabrics. Whoops.

After more cutting and re-cutting, un-stitching and re-stitching, I finally wound up with two correctly sized baskets. Add in some time making bias tape for the stems, freezer paper templates for the circles, and some sewing time appliqueing the center circles and you get...

FOREVER.

But now they're done, and I'm pretty darn happy with these little cuties :)

Included in the instructions is a statement informing me that many of the fabrics sent this month will be re-used in future months. Hmmmm. Since I've used ALL of one of the background fabrics and most of one of the floral prints during this learning adventure, my quilt will end up being truly unique (which I'm actually quite happy about) because I'll be doing some fabric substitution in those future months! Oh well, it's all part of growing and stretching yourself to learn new things, right?!

And I'll definitely be putting a label like this on my finished quilt. Haha!! You can buy them here.

summer skirts

Even though we are down to the last few weeks of summer, I've got a couple of new skirts to show you. This has been my most successful year at attempting a "summer of no shorts". This past spring I came to the realization that I don't like wearing shorts - I know - weird, right? But lately it seems more difficult than it should be to locate a decent-fitting pair that isn't too short or too marmy. Wearing them around the house isn't so bad (and I still do that), but when I'm out and about I just really love a cute skirt. In June my family took a 12 day vacation, and I didn't pack a single pair of shorts, but I did pack and wear several skirts. They're cooler (temperature-wise), girly-er, and waaayyy more fun. And with all the beautiful fabrics available these days, why not make a closet-full of them - a different one to suit your every mood and occasion?

I snagged this book - The Essential A-Line by Jona Giammalva - earlier this summer because I wanted to get some more experience at custom fitting a basic pattern. And yes, the subtitle "Make 17 Flirty Skirts from 1 Basic Pattern" definitely influenced my purchase decision :)

This book is genius!! Based on the full-sized (!) paper templates and measurement charts provided, you can trace a basic A-line skirt pattern drafted to fit your size, and then using the directions and photos provided, make a muslin and tweak the seams and darts to fit you like a glove! And then - here's the best part - use that custom fitted pattern to create 17 different variations of the A-line skirt, undeniably the most universally flattering skirt silhouette for all body types. Whoa - yes, please!

One caveat - the pattern templates provided seem to be a tad over-sized. Based on my measurements I should need a size small, but my muslin that size was way too big. I ended up going down about 1.5 sizes to make it fit me correctly. The fitting process didn't really take that long - maybe 2 hours to trace the pattern, cut and sew the muslin, make the adjustments, and then trace a new pattern. And the pattern fitting is the most important step, but you only need to do it once!

I chose a basic black and white small print for my initial attempt at Jona's method. Here you can see the markings I had to trace on my patterns from her paper templates. These skirts require only two pieces - one front and one back each cut on the fold. You cut each of these pieces from your main fabric and also from a lining fabric. The skirt only has two side seams with an invisible zipper sewn in one side.

In this photo you can see my slippery lining fabric (grrr!) sewn to the main skirt fabric at the waist as I'm pressing. I was a little nervous about the invisible zipper insertion, but it went very smoothly and I got it right the first time! Since the fabrics are black and the zipper is black, I couldn't get any decent photos to show you how it looks, but I'll show you more of that when I make the next one :)

Earlier in June I made this blue, 100% linen skirt using my tried-and-true basic skirt pattern from Butterick (read more about it here). I tried a broadcloth poly/cotton blend for the first time as a lining for the blue skirt, and I was very pleased with the ease of cutting and sewing the broadcloth. It doesn't seem to "stick" to the linen fabric either. From the front these two skirts look like they were made from the same pattern.

But from the back, you can see the centered back zipper on the blue skirt.

There are few other differences between the two - the Butterick pattern has two darts in both the front and back, but the Essential pattern has only two back darts. Butterick has a waistband facing, while the Essential has no facing. The jury is still out on which one I prefer, but it seemed much easier to fit the Essential pattern, maybe due to it's heavy paper templates and the photos with directions for making adjustments?

Look for more skirts coming soon - some of the 17 "flirty" variations of "The Essential A-Line" - because I'll be teaching a "Skirt of the Month" series at my LQS this fall based on the book!!

BTW, Jona Giammalva blogs at Stop Staring and Start Sewing. Check it out...

Rear Window finish

A July finish that is finally photographed! One more quilt off of the UFO list!!

I used the "Rear Window" pattern from Blue Underground Studios and started with a bunch of Amy Butler prints from her early Daisy Chain line. The designer's original quilt was in a trunk show at a local shop a couple of years ago, and I really loved it just as it was, so I tried to use many of the same fabrics.

But of course there are some Kaffe prints in here... Bekah in Green, Paperweight in Sludge (one of my all-time favorites despite the unfortunate color name), and another fabric from his collective that I just can't recall the name of...

All mixed in with some Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley greys and other random teal/turquoise prints. The overall swirly quilting pattern was done by Carol Linder in Hampshire, my go-to long-arm quilter :)

The backing is a mix of two Amy Butler Daisy Chain prints that I scored on clearance at QuiltHome.com - yay! - and the binding is an ombre-like blend of teal, turquoise, and sea glass green that blends well with all those prints in the quilt top.

A close up photo of the backing center section shows off the quilting in sea glass green thread.

And here's a shot of the full backing.

This quilt has seen a lot of use recently by my girls during family movie nights on the couch. Yes, it is summer, and yes, the A/C is usually running, but that hasn't stopped them :) In fact, Thing 1 has decided that we should stop using our lightweight fleece "TV watching" blankets and start using more of "all these pretty quilts".