WIP: Wednesday Angled Frames,Traveling Stash

I'm in the midst of working on about mmm, a hundred projects. One that is coming fairly quickly and I have loved working on is my Angled Frames quilt. I started sewing it following the guidelines in the quilt a long on Flickr. You can come and play/sew too! It's part of the Old Red Barn quilt a long group.  DeeRoo G came up with this great design and her tutorial is here. You use long strips of fabric and the sewing and cutting go quite quickly. I could see how you could cut and sew one in an afternoon. Here are the strips and colors I've been working with



My table is covered with aqua and I love it. I've always thought it was a nice color but it turns out I really like it. I had a little private swap and my partner made me a gorgeous draw string bag that had a patchwork, improv-y aqua solids strip in the middle and it was perfect. Really, perfect. Who knew I had such a thing for it? This is how its coming along



I've been snapping these with my camera phone and the colors are not quite accurate. I've even edited them a bit but the fundamental hue recording is just wrong and the value difference is too big for a limited camera. I'll pull out my big camera when it's a bit further along to get accurate colors.

I also won one of the Traveling Stash boxes, hurray! I've decided to keep the charm pack so I went shopping to replace it and came home with Wishes by Moda and a few basics that were on sale.

On a sad note, the winner of my Hoop Sew Mama Sew giveaway has not contacted me or given me her email so I have to re-draw for a new winner. *update: she saw this post and we connected, yay!



Linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Full Apron in Fall Colors

A bit retro (happy birthday!) full apron made in Autumn colors.

I made it for a Birthday swap on Flickr. Each month one person gets presents for their birthday from everyone else. What fun to have your birthday be all month! CosbyGryffin said that she likes fall colors, orange, mustard, purple, green and red. When she said she also likes to cook I thought I'd take a dive right in and make an apron.



When I thought of my fabrics I thought of the Metro Cafe utensils since it seemed like it was full of the evening colors of fall. The sun setting low on the horizon with melting golds, oranges and mustards, with aqua creeping in on the edges of night. Perfect. I thought of the Alexander Henry Farmdale mustard fabric to be the accompaniment with an accent ruffle of orange. Don't quite remember what that one is. Might be a halloween fabric?



I like to keep all the seams neat and covered in something like an apron. I think it lasts longer, possibly, and since you might get peeks as you move around the kitchen I like it to be finished.



The top is fairly straight forward with the bottom curved out to meet the waist band. That seems to help it fit better and balance the weight of the gathered skirt.



Just a basic strap for the neck. Two long pieces of fabric, folded over a quarter inch on each side and sewed around the edges. You just tuck the two pieces of the strap up against the already sewn together inside out of the top. I like to do a little top stitching to finish it off and help strengthen the straps.

Here's how the back looks



The seams are folded a quarter inch, then again. The ruffle and mustard are sewn on with the mustard piece a bit longer to fold over then seam in the back then get top stitched from the front. Sort of a faux french seam.



I like the ties less than 2 inches wide and fairly long. That way you can have a big bow in back or loop and tie it in the front. That'd give a nice accent to the metro cafe brown. Also, lets be frank. When you're gifting an item to wear and are not sure the size and length of the receiver it's good to have some leeway :)

Happy Birthday!

Cairo Star and Loveliness

Instead of being reasonable and sewing together a block I've seen before I decided to make one up. All of that extra time we all have lying around. I'm linking up to Lovely Year of Finishes as my 3x6 Bee Blocks are my goal to complete in October and with the Quilt Photography Workshop.

This is Cairo Star, the completed block. The blue parts I think can look checkerboard or diamond-like.

These looked like sunbursts to me. For the Workshop the subject is 

"Something That Makes Me Smile."

 (The workshop is a series intended to expand and explore your photographs of sewing. There are challenges to complete, or encouragements to follow, to learn about and share our skills.) 

"My Sewing Process"

One part of the design was slightly off so I had to redraft it, after I printed all of them out...

"Frustration"

As I was sewing another block up I laid out the pieces and saw a pharaonic Storm Trooper. My dear friend who lives in Cairo, Egypt was on my mind as well, so that's why this block is called the Cairo star. I thought Cairo Pharaoh/Sphinx Star Wars Storm Trooper Star was too long a title :)

"Imagine"or "Things That Make Me Laugh"

And lastly, I also really like this star flipped on it's side. The hourglass shapes created in the middle are intriguing to me and it almost seems to have more sparkle in the white octagon. 

I may decide to share the block pattern, after I rework it, if you are interested in the design. 

P.S. I already got a tip from one of the other bloggers to upload to Flickr first then link the photos to your blog. This was one of the subjects we covered in our HTML Sewing Summit Class by Jeni Baker of In Color Order that I almost forgot about already. I'll have to try it. 

Month Sucker

I got a cold in April. It's now May. Besides doing my taxes, being a mediocre friend and keeping my house clean, the whole of April was pretty much a wash. Only one hive of my bee-mates got their blocks on time, I forgot to post about the Lovely Year of Finishes finish and to set a goal for May. So here are my unofficial goals for May: sew more-I love doing it, bike at least 5 times-I love doing this as well, porch sit, blog more-even if its just from my phone and I can't control where the pictures are oriented (obsessed much?) and definitely not least-appreciate friends by being an awesome friend to them.

That shouldn't be too hard right?

So in keeping with the new goal of blogging by phone when necessary, here are my second set of 3x6 Mini Quilt Bee blocks for the solids hive (and see what fun designs popped up when I folded them to mail them?!) :

Tula Pink 10" Fabric Swap on Flickr

Hi all! You may or may not know that I love Tula Pink fabric. Pretty much everything since Parisville I've been obsessed with. The details are incredible. There's a fabric with cameo's where the ladies hair makes ships!  Then these Dusky Tears are ships as well (sorry about some of the crap pictures. They're coming from my phone in my rush to post this before realjob. I'll see if I can edit in better ones later.)

Then there's Prince Charming that has a damask type of fabric with frogs. And see that this classic clamshell shape is actually snails? Then there are the rain drops.

Parisville and Prince Charming fabrics are still available in fairly limited quantities at places like HawthorneThreads, Quilt Home or Fabric.com. Tula has a new line out that's called Salt Water which is quite charming and even lovelier in person than any photos I've seen online. The octopus!

There are great basics as well like these small plus hexies

 Oh and you mustn't forget about her Birds and the Bees line. It has real birds and bees with trees,  purple/blue squirrels and cosmic dust! There is also the Nightshade line that was especially made for Halloween. These are Apothecary Jars in lavender

And the Sisters

There is loyal following of her fans out in the world and she even made a site for me us. It's the I Heart Tula Pink site! You can get exclusive deals and kits, fabric and goods. Why am I pimping Tula today? Well there is a Tula Pink Fabric Swap over on Flickr. So far there are about 23 people signed up to participate for the next round and we could use a few more. People have even been able to get their hands on lines before Parisville that have been out of print for years. From youngest to oldest: Plume, 
Neptune, Flutterby, Nest, Hushabye and Full Moon Forest.

In case that graphic link doesn't work click here for the Flickr page. You can sign up for a spot and peruse the fabrics, by line, that have been used already. Come join us!