February Free Motion Quilt Challenge

This is my February entry for the free motion quilt challenge which is happening over here, http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/p/free-motion-quilt-challenge.html.

Participants who take the pledge to improve their quilting and complete the monthly challenge (regardless of the quality of the work) are entered into a monthly prize drawing. To be entered to win a prize I have to complete the challenge, blog about it, and then submit a link to the above host site.  I'm always up for the chance to win free sewing supplies! I particularly like that the emphasis for this challenge  is not on winning prizes but improving skills. I'm in!

February's challenge was a free motion feather/plume. Here are some before and after shots of my first and second attempts.

1st attempt-just going for it. It was MUCH harder than I had anticipated  to control everything!

Second attempt, after drawing practice

Back of Block. Still having some thread tension issues.

 The first one was done with no marking, and no advanced practice. It's terrible! The second feather was also stitched on unmarked  fabric but after I had spent an hour or so drawing the design on paper. I went through A LOT of paper. Then I had a "duh" moment and started using a drawing app and stylus with my ipad.

I want my feathers to be fat (more like the first picture) and although my second attempt was more controlled than my first, I still have much practice to do before I am confident enough to stitch this onto a quilt. Fortunately, I still have the rest of the month to practice!

Chaos and Neglected Fatties (Free Fabric!)

Saturday was grand. Really. Who wouldn't want to spend 5 hours of a raging blizzard getting cozy with restless boys, a few dogs, and cats? Not having heat, electricity, or water, really added to the family chaos fun.

Taking decent pictures of quick moving boys, in a power outage, is a little challenging.

The boys work off some energy with a quick game of No-Contact Air Ninja during the power outage.

After working off some physical energy, it was time to get creative. Brian helped the boys draft and build  paper boats. These aren't your grandpa's paper boats!

Yes, the lights and heat are on in this picture. They started the project the night before.

"The S.S. Amazon"-named for the up-cycled amazon.com box.

While chaos was reigning in the living room and I was feeling inspired by this post http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/01/stashing.html, I decided reorganizing my fabric stash seemed like a low-key way to spend the forced inside time.  If you can use any of these (mostly fat quarters) of fabric, leave a comment telling me what your favorite sewing tool/notion/trick is and tell me the fabric that you want. If you need me to ship it to you, I will. I want to see these neglected fatties go to a home where they will be appreciated.

3 fat quarters of Nicey Jane-one of my favorite fabric lines. I've used this yellowish green and blue fabric in a quilt and it adds a nice pop when used in moderation.-Sending it your way Erika!

Amy Butler "Love" - 2 fat quarters-For Marjorie!

Orange and Gold Joel Dewberry "Modern Meadow" - One fat quarter

More Modern Meadow, green and brown- 3 fat quarters

Modern Meadow, larger scale trees and birds in yellow-green; 1 fat quarter-This one is going to Jenny of http://corbincreekquilter.blogspot.com/

Amy Butler "Love"- 3 fat quarters-Sending these your way Tammy and Jenny!

Moda "Berry Delicious" - 42 X 22 inch piece-Going to Tammy!

42X39 inch piece-This is a really beautiful fabric. The colors don't show well here and the centers of the flowers have some sparkle. I made some baby kimono shirts out of this for a friend.

If you don't have a favorite notion or sewing tip, tell me how you spent your last storm day, don't forget to tell me which fabrics you want. The odds are good-not a whole lot of readers here so I am sure everyone will get something they want!

Quilted Media Cases

Media Cases
I've been entertaining myself through this LONG stretch of -30F temps by sewing media cases. I've made them to fit Kindles, Nook Tablets, and ipads- with zippers or without, with straps, without straps, etc. So easy to customize. I didn't intend to make these to sell but it just sort of evolved into that. I've been asked for three this month. I certainly don't mind adding to my fabric money fund! The amount I make on one of these is pretty laughable if you consider the cost of the materials (about $22) and the time spent sewing. Good thing it's just a hobby!

Velcro tab top ipad case. This one is a bit small for the old ipad but fits the ipad 2 much better.

Older Style Kindle Case

Zip Top Kindle Case

Back of Nook Tablet Case with strap

Zip Top Nook Tablet Case with Straps

ipad case with lined front zip pocket and zip top

Inside of front zip pocket

Zip top ipad Case

Raw Edge Raglan Tee

Sewing this shirt is a breeze if you can read directions and follow diagrams which is not a strong point of mine. I'll be upfront, it is certainly less expensive to buy these tee shirts for $5 than it is to make them. It's not as fun though, and I cut costs by up-cycling my husband's ugly tee shirts and one of our jersey cotton bedsheets. I did purchase that skull cotton on sale at fabric. com though.

This shirt is meant to have the raw edge seams on the outside, giving it an inside out look. More comfortable next to kiddo's skin with no seams on the inside. I LOVE that there is no hemming involved!

M's shirt pictured here is my third and only successful attempt at making the shirt. The other two were super cute but sadly would not fit over any of my boys' melon heads. Tip- After sewing the neckband into a circle, check to make sure it fits over the kid's head before attaching it to the shirt. That was a duh moment for sure.

This ^ product wins the MVP award in my sewing arsenal. It comes in super handy for this step of the project:

  

I don't have water-soluble basting tape. I can't buy it in town, I'm sure. Frankly, I don't even know what it is. Elmer's School glue works great for stabilizing the neckband when it comes time to top stitch it down. No pins! Just squirt a thin line of the glue on the seam allowance, fold the neckband down about 1/8th inch past the seam and set it with a hot iron. Be sure to use "School Glue" though because it washes right out when laundered.  It's also well worth it to follow the authors' stitch length and width suggestion. I tried the stretch stitch on my machine instead and it didn't give me as much stretch.

This book is great if you have LITTLE boys to sew for. Sadly, M is the only one still small enough for these projects. My goal is to sew through this book faster than he can grow out of it.  Here's a link to the book if you are interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Sewing-Boys-Projects-Handmade-Wardrobe/dp/product-description/0470949554

Feeling Scrappy

This is week four of -20 temps or lower, without a break. Our water is frozen every morning. You'd think with this cold weather, I'd be getting a lot of sewing done but it's quite the opposite. The three boys have been confined to the house too often, as well as the dogs so I have been running interference between big brothers and little brothers, dogs and cats.

We have been in the final stage minutes of the adoption process (yay!) and for anyone who has ever adopted, you  KNOW what a time eater that is! Round #2 of the stomach flu began today and it's just too cold to sit in my sewing closet and sew. I pretty much just want to hibernate under a blanket on the couch, drink coffee, and watch the amazing sunrises we have been getting - around 11:00 a.m.

Despite the general state of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) I have managed to make another small dent in the scrap pile and threw together a few of these blocks:

Not sure what I am planning to do with them yet. Maybe another one of these:

A PIF project I made for a friend last spring.

 On another note, the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy finally arrived with the Russian tanker Renda, bringing us our heating fuel and gas. What a journey!

In this image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard The Kigluaik Mountains can be viewed as the Russian tanker Renda transits toward the Port of Nome Jan. 13, 2012. The Renda has been assisted by the Coast Guard Ice Breaker Healy since the vessels left Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Now comes the tricky part: getting more than a million gallons of diesel and gasoline to shore through a mile-long hose without a spill. (AP Photo/US Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Charly Hengen)

I'm certain fuel prices will rise well above the $6.00 a gallon they are now but it could be worse (and would have been if the tanker had not arrived).
You can follow that story here:
Emergency Averted

Quilter's Butt and a New Resolve

It's cliche but one of my resolutions this year was to get rid of what I am not so fondly calling "Quilter's butt". I'm blaming it on bad weather, facebook, all those handmade pay it forward projects I committed myself to in 2011, and the fact that everyone was having babies and needed quilts. In reality, I'm just getting old and lazy and decided it was time to get in shape. I made it through my second hellish workout and am starting to think I really don't mind getting fat.

I also resolved that I would not buy anymore fabric quilting fabric this year. I am going to make a dent in my mounds of scraps and use up my stash.

 My first scrap project of the year was this super cute pincushion from Anna Maria Horner's book, Seams to Me.

This is my first project from the book and it was a pain in the quilter's butt. It's a bit wonky even after a near catastrophic attempt at putting it in the microwave to reshape the fusible interfacing (Note to self-take out the pins first) but I kind of love it. I was super frustrated by some aspects of the project so I did a little research and discovered there are errors in the pattern. Now that I know the tricks, guess what everyone is getting for gifts this year? Smile.

I also used up some stash by creating this customized ereader pouch for a friend. It was my first time trying to adjust patterns for size and only my second attempt at zippers.

 The pouch was way to small for her reader but is just the right size to hold my new rotary cutter and blades! I'm liking the zips though and I now want to put them on EVERYTHING.  My kids might be rocking some 80's style Jackson pants this year. =)

The Dead Blog

Well, I need to either kill this blog off or start posting again. I first started this blog as practice because I had planned on blogging with my students. We went Wiki instead. =)  So, I 'm trying to figure out what the purpose of this blog will be this year and I think I have it figured out. The reality is, there are so many GREAT blogs out there that the likely hood of anyone really taking time to read this (for any reason other than to be polite) is slim. My writing skills are mediocre and my photography even worse but I think my kids, pets,  husband and town are an eclectic mix of odd and wonderful (and certainly funny).

My focus this year will be to use this blog as a record of the silly-weird mix of our family life and to document my various sewing projects. Really, just a project journal for myself but if it inspires someone to take up sewing or quilting, great! Besides, I think my facebook friends are getting rather bored of reading about and seeing pictures of all my funny little sewing projects. So happy new year to myself (and anyone else that might be listening). I hope 2012 inspires you.