special quilts

I was at my parents' house over the weekend, and I managed to get some pictures of some very special stuff. Here is my sister's first quilt - a perfect doll quilt. This formed my image of what all doll quilts should be. I love it so much.

It was a kit, I believe, which came with the patches. I absolutely love the combination of patterns and colors.

This is my pitiful recreation from my own kit. I can't remember how old I was when I sewed this - 8 perhaps? This is officially my first quilt. I do hold a special place in my heart for it, but it just didn't compare with my sister's, and so I have always been disappointed in it.

Fortunately, my mother cherishes both without being concerned with quality :) These next few pictures are of the mother of all quilts. This is the quilt. Literally - in my house when someone refers to "the quilt," this is what they mean.

The coolest part is that my mother let us play with it like wild things. As I was growing up (this was sewn before I was born!) it was my butterfly wings, a sale to my pirate ship, a giant treasure map, and most of all, the ultimate source of motherly warmth and comfort while traveling, sick or just cuddling. I really couldn't say enough of how much this means to me!

Before it was popular to be eco-friendly, this was an eco-friendly quilt. Mom used shirting fabric scraps from a shirt factory. I marveled at this when I was little - I thought it was so amazing to use shirt scraps, and I used to pick out the patches that looked the most like a shirt! As you can see, the backing is a rainbow sheet - no need to tell you how cool that is to a little girl.

The ties are yellow yarn, and the edging fabric is the most perfect calico. Don't you just love the little mending that occurred over time?

It is also interesting to see how the colors fade into soft pastels over time. I think I need to use this as inspiration in painting - and in quilting! I hope you all have something special and warm to snuggle up in :)

patchwork potholders

I am planning to open an Etsy shop soon (yay!) so I am preparing a list of items to make and sell. I have been wanting to make myself some patchwork potholders for a while now, so I figured if I was reaching for them, someone else must be too. Plus, I haven't seen any quite like this out there. I got the idea after reading this post from the purl bee. I fell in love with the quilt squares as individual pieces, and began to imagine them as potholders.


I also took this opportunity to learn how to hand piece and machine piece patchwork together. In the picture above, you can see the wobbly results of my impatient first attempt at machine piecing (the red star). Next I tried hand piecing , which resulted in the perfect blue star. sigh.

everything is lined up perfectly. it seems particularly special having been labored over by hand. the red one, not so much. when i machine stitched it, i thought pshaw! i don't need to use pins. i'm only sewing a few inches at a time. how very wrong i was.

the one problem with the hand piecing is the time commitment. I figured out a way to machine piece carefully, which seems to work well. i machine stitch from one corner of the design shape to the next, and back stitch each end. that way i don't have to sew across the seam allowance too. this requires precision, but it also allows the shapes to come together more smoothly. i also figured out that pins are necessary, even though the seam is only an inch or so. heh.


here is the result of machine piecing without sewing across the seam allowances (and, uh, using pins - ahee).


fast and perfect - yay! here it is all sewn up as a finished potholder:



the red one made a pretty potholder too despite the wonkiness.

i forgot to take a picture of the finished blue star potholder on its own, so those will be forthcoming with the next batch. And so you see what i plan to do with so many of those lovely free patches! that and other stuff like place mats, purses, and anything else I can think of.

more to come...

happy october!

Exciting things are happening around here... As you can see, I have gotten a beautiful pumpkin to celebrate fall - and not just any pumpkin, it's a organic pie pumpkin :) Right around Halloween I plan to bake it, puree it and make a yummy pie. It's sitting on a stack pure goodness - free, 100% cotton patches. Yes, you heard right - free! I shall reveal my secret:

Wallpaper books. If you call your local wallpaper store, they will very likely have discontinued books that they would otherwise throw away! A lot of wallpaper books have fabric samples too, which is where I got that beautiful stack. I swear it's like gold to me.

There you can see a fabric patch that perfectly matches the wallpaper sample. I haven't even begun to sing the praises of the actual wallpaper - it can be used for wrapping paper, book-binding, decoupage, note cards, etc. Anything you can use fancy paper for, you got it.

Gold baby, pure gold.

This is how many patches came from seven wallpaper books.


I was positively hopping with glee. Take a look at some of these beauties:

That round of books and fabric was particularly wonderful - I doubt I'll be that lucky again. I did go to another local wallpaper store and managed to get another 10 books (!) and 15 fabric books (!!!). Not quite as fantasmagorical as the last bunch, but beautiful in their own right. I have to sort the fakey fabrics from the cotton and silk ones. Lots of projects are looming on the horizon!

Once I deconstruct the fabric books and sort the fabrics by fiber, I'll start the washing, drying and ironing phase like with the last bunch. Gotta love eco-friendly free crafts, even if they do involve some work.

Soon I will post photos of two finished sewing projects (hint: they are wearable). I hope you all have a wonderful start to fall - and lots of pumpkin :)

labor day weekend labor part 3

Here are some pictures of the grey dress modeled. It is a very versatile dress, and could probably even be worn as a tunic with leggings and flats.


It has wonderful drape - I believe it's made of rayon.


H thinks it looks best bunched up with lots of drape around the middle (also very forgiving this way!)


It looks almost Grecian - it would be great with gladiator sandals.

Here it is with a bit more flash - it's amazing what different shoes can do to the look of the dress.

Definitely a new favorite in my wardrobe - shamefully easy to sew, and extremely comfortable to wear.

Here is the puff skirt with the white ruffle shirt - not bad together.

This skirt is very light and floaty, making it susceptible to Marilyn Monroe moments - must remember to wear something nice underneath - ha!

FYI - Poppy Boutonniere Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!!!!

Poppy Boutonniere Tutorial and GIVEAWAY!!!!

labor day weekend labor part 2

As promised, here is the white flower tee modeled. It looks quite different on a body than on a bed. I'm very pleased with how this came out - I definitely plan to make more (I have lots of H's old undershirts to play with). I'm considering adding a few more ruffly flowers to the neckline to thicken it up a bit.

Among other things, I got necklace happy this past weekend. There are some hits and misses, but all fun :) This red one is my favorite, and really the reason I started messing about with beads. I had this in my head for a few days, begging to be made. The beads are super cheap glass which I had for some reason or other, but they do look rather nice and modern done up this way.


This next one is what I'm wearing right now - it's super simple and (I think) chic. Just a champagne-clear glass bead on a gold chain. I paired it the other day with freshwater pearls.


For this one, I painted little wooden beads with red nail polish and strung them on the same gold chain. Fantastically light weight, and reminds me of cranberries and Christmas!


This next one is clear glass beads on a blue ribbon. Probably the least versatile, but I still like it. It was inspired by the jewelry on this wiksten post.


Following the same simple modern idea, I tried a few large wooden beads on my gold chain - I've already worn this to work, and I like it so far.

It is rdiculously late to show this, but here is the "after" photo of the jacket refashion I began in June of 2008 (here's the "before" picture) - good heavens, that took a while to get posted.

Here you can see the original idea I found online on the left, and the final result of my refashion on the right. Not too far off the mark.


Anyway, I love it and wear it a ton.


I had to rig a diamond shaped patch on the back to cover up where I took in the back - I am no expert after all :)

More pictures to come soon...

labor day weekend labor

For some reason, I got the sewing bug over the weekend and managed to refashion and sew three garments! Here is the first one - a shirt modeled after one of my favorites from anthropologie:

I made it out of one of H's old undershirts - cool huh? This next one is a dress modeled after this one from american apparel:


It is very soft, and very versatile. I made it from one of those old nineties skirts with slits up both sides. And finally this puff skirt was very simple to make. I just took a loop of fabric from a dress my sister threw out and sewed a tunnel for an elastic band (from the nineties skirt which is now a dress), then hemmed the bottom edge. Easy peasy :)


I have a ton of pictures of me modeling these to post soon. It's hard to get an idea of how it's supposed to look on a hanger or laying on a bed.

I also got into framing and hanging. The picture below shows a spectacular watercolor from my painting teacher that he gave me as a wedding gift. I have finally gotten on the wall!


I used a frame which used to have a strange portrait of H and I which neither of us loved a ton, and I cut the mat using my dad's old mat-cutter. I have since moved it to hang right over our bed. It is simple and magical - I absolutely love it.


I painted these three canvases while I was studying art in Italy. They are quite unlike any of my other student work - I had to keep them small and mobile for traveling back to the U.S., and two of them were painted outside in plein air. There is a certain lightness and carelessness about them which is refreshing. My other stuff can be a bit heavy and dramatic.


This was the first time I had ever worked from a nude model. Tons of fun and thrilling! I went to a very conservative christian school that didn't allow nude models (they had to wear swimsuits - ha!)


This was a passage way I used to get to class every day. It was secluded and peaceful - perfect for setting up an easel.

And this was a closeup of that garden wall. Some of those leaves are just shameful - I ran out of steam on this one. It was a very valuable exercise though.

More pictures to come of my surprisingly productive weekend!