Silhouette Challenge: Fall

Teabag boxes, Silhouette Challenge: Fall 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier this summer, I harvested a bumper crop of mint. (Garden goodness this way)  I dried and then ground up the mint - both peppermint and spearmint (the mint is on the tray hiding behind the lavender) and now I have tea for the fall.  I planned on sharing the tea with friends, and used the "Fall"  Silhouette Challenge to kickstart my big presentation plans.

I already had a cute teabag holder with some hexies on it.  I opened up a new project with just the teabag shape and added the maple leaves.  They are all the same leaf, two are 100%, two 75% and two of them are sized at 50%.  The original design had a hexagon tag, and when I deleted it from the new project, I saved the hole for the string, so it was easy to add to some of the maple leaf shapes.  Others I left intact so that I could glue them onto the bags.  I cut several colours, and mixed and matched the leaves.

Here is the finished product - I put the tea into little plastic bags and tucked them into the teabag boxes.  Love this sweet little Saturday morning project!  I can't wait to give them out as little unexpected gifties.  These would also make really fierce place cards at Thanksgiving dinner. 

Oh no.  The wheels are turning again. 

Monday Morning Star Count: Back to School Edition

The Whole Glorious Pile of Hand-Piecing

Today marks the unofficial end of summer for our family and many other families.  Two of my children are now in high school, and the last one is powering along in elementary.  I'm heading back to my own courses toward the world's slowest degree.  I'm still working on paper piecing and a few other quilting and other crafty projects.  I'm starting to think about making some Christmas gifts.  Maybe cards too?  First, there's a baby quilt for a friend to start...there's always some fun to be had, and some new shenanigans to start.

I enjoyed dedicating myself to sewing and especially quilting this summer.  I intended to finish a couple of quilts, but well...I would up not finishing those, but starting many new projects.  Some I finished, some are in progress.  I wouldn't change a thing.  I'm just enjoying the whole slightly chaotic process of creating and learning.  And shopping.  I rather like that too.

As far as the english paper piecing (epp) goes...the new grand total of stars is 11.  I still have quite a few more  diamonds all basted and ready to go from my basting-before-piecing phase earlier this summer.


I've found many opportunities for summer piecing and quilting by taking on a
hand-sewing project.  Recently, we spent some time in the US-Canada border line-up, and that gave me a whole hour or so of piecing little diamonds together.

I still haven't really made any big design decisions.  Right now, I'm thinking about my fall schedule and reminding myself to use time that I normally spend waiting for appointments or sitting in the car waiting for kids at lessons or after school.  I could probably fit in a little sewing while listening to online lectures. 

Thanks to Jessica at Life Under Quilts for hosting the very inspiring Star Counts.  They kept me hand-stitching over the past few months!

Silhouette "Thanks" Card

Silhouette "Thanks" Card

I love all things crafty.  I love quilting and sewing and I love my Silhouette Cameo.  If you landed here via a quilting or sewing site, you might not know what that is.  It's a super-duper paper cutter -  Cameo 

I use it all the time for scrapbooking (well, I would use it for that, but I'm about a dozen years behind - I have recently used it to cut cards for Project Life albums - more on that another time), card-making, and kid crafts.  I'm a Spark leader (5-6 year old Girl Guides) and lead Craft Club at my son's school, so it gets a good work-out.  I put it through it's paces for sure, but if I'm honest, I mostly grab a shape online, pull it up from my library and send it to the machine.

The thing with the Cameo is that while the software is powerful and very user-friendly and easy to use, I rarely sit and play long enough to really figure out what I can do with it.  I know that you know how that goes.  Sigh.  I'm going to master cutting vinyl, printing and cutting - all that good stuff.

I am.

Maybe I should do that by December 31 to make room for those unrealistic New Year's resolutions.

Anyway, back in reality,...today I needed a card, and thought I should flex my Silhouette muscles to use the sketch pens feature.

I watched a tutorial on you-tube and figured I was good to go.  I ungrouped the word from the rest of the card, and then cut over it with the oval shape.  To give the slider a little more gravity, I cut out the shape three times and stacked and glued them together to create a chipboardy vibe.  Things were really cookin' in the craft pit!  I added a sheet of AC paper that I bought while I was with the person I was making the card for - she'll recognize it, I'm sure. 

I'm happy with my first try.  Word to the wise though - be sure to watch more than one you-tube video before trying anything new.  I stumbled upon a written tutorial on the Silhouette site a little later on only to discover that you can actually use a "sketch" tool in the designer edition (yeah, I've got that. oh my.) which only goes to show that I've got a little more playing to do to make sure I'm really using all of the bells and whistles.


I'm tucking in a Project Life card outlining the thought process that birthed this little project.  My friend will probably get a little chuckle out of it, and I'm sure you can relate.

1. I should email _______ and thank her.

2. No. I should send a card!  I've got cards.

3. Oh. A handmade one would be nice.

4. I can use my cutting machine.  I've got a thousand designs.

5.  None of those look right.  I'll just buy a new one.

6. Sketch pens would be even better!

7.  Now to find the sketch pen tutorials...

Monday Morning Star Count (Tuesday Afternoon Edition)

We had some fun on the coast this weekend and just rolled in a bit ago.  No cellphone service, no internet...just family and good food and a little sewing here and there.

I worked on a project with a jelly roll called Science Fair here and I have all of the print hexies done.  Love it so far!  I just have to figure out what to do for the background.

I fit in some EPP on the deck.  Lovely weather for a little coastal quilting and piecing.  The best opportunity for hand-sewing came in the ferry line-ups though. 

I finished 3 stars, and I think I found my groove, so things should move along a bit faster now.  I'm still not sure what these pieced stars will become - table runner, quilt, wall hanging, and I don't even think I know how I will lay them out, but they sure are sweet to make.

My friend and her family are coming in to town to stay with us for a week or so starting on Friday!  Yeah!  My oldest and dearest sewing pal and one of my very oldest and dearest pals at all.  We met in grade one, and have been making fun everywhere we go ever since.

If I can sew and talk at the same time, I think my goal for the week will be 4 completed stars, and 20 basted background diamonds. 

La Finished Ruler Bag!

She is done!  I'm so excited.  I presented this quilted ruler bag to the enabler after she returned from a mini-trip with her mom.  I was a little worried I would run out of time, but this bag came together really well thanks to fabulous instructions from Polly Monica on the Moda BakeShop.  Here is the excellent tutorial for the Queen Bee Bag.

The pictures were great, the instructions were clear, and one of the best parts was that this project uses one whole charm pack, plus yardage for a print and a solid.  In fact, you probably have what you need to make this in your stash.  Ahem.  I would know.

The pattern is listed under 120 minute gifts.  If you're going to a party this afternoon for one of your best quilting buddies and you still need a gift - this is probably not for you.  It could be that if the cutting is done, your walking foot works, you have lots of bobbins ready to go, you won't change your mind on what stitch you'll use to quilt the pockets and panels and nobody else is home and will ask you anything that you might be able to finish in 2 hours.  In my case, I worked on this like it was my mission from Sunday to Friday.

That said, this is still a good project for most quilters because the instructions really are clear, and the piecing is quite straightforward.  

This is early on in the process.  These are the squares from the charm pack stitched and ready to attach to the print for the front panel.  The nice thing about using a charm pack is that it requires not too much fussing to get a really satisfying arrangement.

A little late night quilting.  The charm pack was Sweet Serenade - Basic Grey for Moda and the prints were from Comma - Moda which I also love and still have some mini charm packs to use.

I plan to make a couple more of these bags for special quilters or maybe for me.  It's a really nice gift to honour a fellow quilter, and yet it's not another quilt - because a fellow quilter might not really need one...

Oh and the size - the first photo above shows the bag with a fully protected 8.5 x 24 ruler inside the bag and a 6 x 24 in the front pocket in no danger of falling out.  The back of the bag holds a 14 inch square ruler nested in the back pocket along with a 12 x 18 mat tucked into the same pocket.

Monday Morning Star Count

 Today is the end of a long weekend here.  My friend is still in town, and we spent yesterday hanging out in the sewing pit reading magazines and plotting our next moves.  I was able to give her a ruler bag that I managed to finish this week, and that left not much time for hand sewing.

I sat down when all was quiet and put together another star, this time with the solid white pieces around the sides to make a hexie.

When I started this project, I was getting ready to leave on holiday, and I bought a couple of mini-charm packs and got busy basting.  I've noticed now that I've done some properly shaped cuts on the white solid that the mini-charms are a bit more difficult to work with.  The pinked edges make the points just a little sketchy to join.

If you're in a bind, then the mini-charms can work so that you can get started right away, but for ease in joining, you can't beat pieces that you've cut yourself.

Also pictured is some homemade cab, a homemade tablerunner and my trusty tablet.  I think I was in a red mood.

Also, check out my pin cushion!  Makes me snicker every time, and takes up very little real estate in my EPP box.

Check out all of the wonderful EPP projects at Life Under Quilts

I took this photo to send to my friend to show her what I was capable of when I got on a tear on a summer day.  I picked the mint, ground some of the older mint into tea, tried to get caught up on the lavender that's taking over...and then there's the zucchini.  Like 26 loaves in the past 24 hours.  I looked at the photo I snapped and what jumped out at me were the placemats that I left in the middle of the table.  They're always there, and it didn't occur to me to move them to get the shot.

It made me think about how big a part of my everyday life my quilts are.  They're on couches, running along my tables, they're always covering my kids and they're even on my bed sometimes.  My mother-in-law took me to one of her favourite quilt shops on the coast last year and let me pick out four fat quarters.  In her expert hands, in mere days, she turned out 8 gorgeous placemats that make me smile whenever someone slides one under a cereal bowl or dinner plate.  It's a favourite pattern of hers, and she's made sets for herself, and my
sister-in-law.  They're all totally different and she had us pick our own fat quarters.  She even let me use her 1/4 inch foot on her machine to show me how easy they were to machine quilt; I learned that machine quilting isn't so scary, and that I really, really need a 1/4 inch foot.  More on that another day.  For now, I'll enjoy some mint tea, and get those loaves into the freezer before the teenagers realize that they're still there.

Monday Star Count

The star count for my first week of Monday Star Counts is...well, it's 1.  I have completed one hand-pieced star.  Eventually, it will become a quilt, but for now, it's a star, and I'm pretty excited that I stopped arranging and re-arranging these basted diamonds and finally just grouped them by colour, grabbed six of them and put them together.  I think that we can over-think what "scrappy" or "random" means sometimes.

I started this process at the beginning of July, and these diamonds were basted on vacation, and at the park.  I'm so glad I started this in the summertime.

More on the process later.  For now, the grated zucchini sitting on the counter is calling my name, and the garden isn't slowing down production anytime soon.

Doing it all and getting nothing done (at record speed)

Big plans in my world this weekend.  Nothing is really going as I imagined (how dull would that world be?) 

I still have the King of UFOs taking up real estate on the sewing table.  The sewing table is an old door that my husband made into a counter-height sewing table, so at least it's got a little room over there.

The overly ambitious bargello wall hanging is still waiting to be squared, and the "Mama Said Sew" project is awaiting some love and quilting. 

The inside of the sewing pit is probably beginning (beginning?) to look like the inside of my brain.  So many ideas.  It's almost like I worry that if I don't start, I'll forget.  Then other parts of life take over, and projects languish a little.  That's OK.  I'm sure a blog can only help, right?  Right?  Anyway.

The enabler is coming over tomorrow.  That's a big deal.  We talk several times a week, sometimes daily, but she's a 12 hour drive away.  She's in town to visit her mom, and we'll spend at least tomorrow visiting, exchanging fabric, shopping, project admiring, and shopping.  I said that twice. It's OK.

I'm excited and in my excitement, I may have started too many project.  I think I forgot to mention the table topper.  More on that later.  Anyway, for tonight, I'm going to make a little more headway on one of these projects, and tidy up the pit for her arrival.  Or make a pot-holder.  I totally bet I could do that.  I could definitely start.  

It's What's on the Machine Today

This hasty pic was snapped because part of me couldn't believe what I was looking at.  The king of all UFOs.   I made this in about 2000.  I don't even remember the year, I just vaguely recall where I lived and how many little people I had that needed to take naps so that I could drag out the machine to piece it. 

My mother-in-law taught me how to piece half-square triangles, and I'm so glad she did, because since recently returning to the world of quilting, I have met some folks that truly dislike making them. 

It was made from a book that lives up at the cabin, and I'll track down the name of it the next time I visit.  I have a photocopy of the quilting design recommended for it, and I really like it, so I've spent many hours on the floor chalk-marking this fella.  He's made it down to the sewing pit, and I've sewn a few lines.  Enough lines to think that maybe I should open the Craftsy machine quilting class that I'm sure is in my class list. 

I remember feeling pretty excited when I finished the top, and I was so eager to get to the quilting part.  I thought about how great it would be to pick up and stitch a few lines while the kids were busy.  Dragging the machine out was pretty tricky in those days in our little place.  I thought I'd sit and watch TV and drink tea and stitch a few more lines.  I was a cross-stitcher at the time, and how hard could it be?

Oh. 

Hand quilting didn't agree with me at all then.  I thought that the needle was too small (didn't occur to me to try another one), the thimble was too hot (didn't think to try again in winter), and really, who's got time for all that anyway? (Again, I didn't think that if I had just done a line here and there every month, that maybe I might not be staring at an unfinished quilt top 13 years later)

It was my daughter, the teenage sewing master, that found it in my stash, and we had a good laugh and I forgave myself and decided that this would be a fun way to learn machine quilting.  More on that to come.

I know this is a new blog, but if you stop by, I would love to get to know you.  Tell me about your UFOs!

Quick lap quilt with a Jelly Roll

My first jelly-roll quilt.  It's "Mama Said Sew" by Moda, and it's a pattern I bought from SweetJane called P.S. I Love You.

The jelly-roll was a lovely gift from the enabler (that friend we all have that we love shopping with, but shouldn't shop often with)  I love the fabric, and I had big ideas for this quilt.  Unfortunately, most of those ideas involved the strips being oriented horizontally, and these strips have writing that makes you want to be able to look at it newspaper style.  The  P.S. I Love You pattern to the rescue.  The pattern might have been inspired by the fabric too - it's exactly what I needed (and the fabric is featured on the model)   There really is something
out there for everyone, and I love supporting both local quilt/craft
stores and home entrepreneurs.

I love the way this looks.  I even love the mistake.  Is mistake the right word? Not sure, but it's what makes this quilt mine.

I was so excited to get this jelly roll and and unwind it.  You can almost smell the promise of fabulous projects to come when you arrange those strips and see the whole collection sitting there on the living room floor.  Like so many dream projects, the story almost ended there.  It took me forever to find a pattern that showcased the fabric the way I wanted to, and that suited my skill level. I've been away from quilting for awhile (15 years - maybe there's a word that means a little longer than awhile) and my first project was a bargello quilt that was maybe a liiiiiiiittle ambitious.  The pile of strips on the floor got tangled, and well, you know.

SO.  I found a project, found some time while we were up at the cabin to sew, and that bad boy became a near-reality.  Here's the thing. What do you think happens when you wait months and months to find a pattern when you already have the perfect fabric?  Yeah. It's on it's way out and impossible to find that one piece fabric that I wanted for the long strip.

I picked it up and got it home and cut it and pieced it, patted myself on the back for being so clever, and oh.  The same fabric is like right next to the strip.  Right there.  It's random, but not in a quilty way.  It's random in a life way.

Ugh.

I left it there.  I decided that life is too short to not embrace imperfect quilts.  It stayed, and I had to hold my nose while I sewed it, but you know what?  I really, really like it.  Yes!  Random won!

Welcome!  Quiltini is a tasty cocktail of all things crafty, quilty and all around creative.  Sometimes, it's a tasty cocktail of all things cocktails.