Practical Sewing

Not a whole lot of "fun" sewing going on lately. I have been working on practical things, like sewing buttons back on pants and making burp rags from dishcloths. Nothing even remotely interesting enough to share a picture of.

I thought I would share a project I completed a while back. This is a t-shirt quilt I made for my uncle. I was cranking these out at a steady pace for a while there. They are relatively easy to make and create quite and impact if there is a theme or all the shirts are similar colors. My uncles is made out of his Harley t-shirts and this quilt barely made a dent in his stash. Since they were all black I use the traditional Harley orange to frame them with a flame fabric for the corner blocks. The key to these quilts in interfacing. You need a lot of it but if you don't back each of the squares that knit jersey will go buck wild on you.

A close up of the quilting. I send my quilts out to Michele Mueller in Fremont, Nebraska for quilting when they are too big to fit in my machine. She is amazing and it helps to have a long haul truck driving father in law to do all my shipping.

Here is a shot of the back. I found the best black and white motorcycle fabric and used it in panels for the back. On a side note you can see the legs of the ladder in the left of the picture. Robert is hiding behind the tree so I could get a good shot. What a nice husband was he to climb up there and hang my larger quilts so I could get some pictures outside.

Another hand embroidered quilt label. I love doing these. Its nice to have a small project to work on while you are waiting somewhere or watching TV in the evenings.

Hope you enjoyed this little past project.

Score

I am not a particularly lucky gal. Well, let me clarify. I am super lucky in that I have a wonderful family, healthy 3 month old, swell sidekick dog, food, shelter, hugs, kisses, fairy dust and all that jazz. I am not so lucky in that I win raffles, contests or find huge wads of money laying on the side of the road, but I did get lucky this past weekend. I found a Maya Sling at the Goodwill. I can hardly believe it myself. I also snagged these super swell Pyrex bowls at a yard sale. I love the green and white flower Pyrex. I have a couple in my kitchen, but I am always on the lookout for the red rooster pattern. How about you, score any good deals recently?

Sew Not a Sewing Project

Sew I have been working on a project of the non sewing kind. In an effort to reclaim some of my living room from the massive piles of baby stuff accumulation I came up with this. I picked this little dresser up on Craigslist for a little more than a song. At first I thought I would just clean her up and use her as is but when I got it home she turned out looking a little more orangy than I would have liked, and the top needed refinishing anyway. She also needed a little TLC, so Robert performed some minor surgery on her undercarriage to get her in good working order.


A few coats of paint and some new knobs later and here is she, in all her glory in my living room. I admit at first I was kinda skeptical about a purple dresser in the living room but it works. She sits in a corner that just collected dust tumbleweeds anyway and is small enough to look like she belongs. Plus I can change the baby right on top without bending over and all the crap is hidden in the drawers.

She also matches this super awesome rug I just picked up on Overstock. Its a psychedelic explosion in my living room and it hides all the dog hair. Is it strange I just called a dresser a she this whole post? Happy home improvements to you all.

Little Lovlies

Check out this beautiful stack of fabric I just picked up for my "secret" project. I am falling in love with all of these reproduction fabrics. They are just so bright and cheery.

I just had to share this picture. This is my dog Lilly helping me sew. She loves blankets, fabrics, clothes and pretty much anything that smells like a person. I turned my back for one second and she had buried herself underneath this pile of fabric. It's nice to always have a helper.

Baby Quilt Complete

The embroidered baby quilt is finally complete. I finished hand sewing the binding on this weekend and was able to take some pictures of it outside in the bright sunshine. It was a joy to work on knowing my little girl will have something handmade from her mama to keep her warm at night or to snuggle up with at nap time.

Here is a shot of the back of the quilt. I used the left over bear paw quilt block to piece the back, along with the leftover fabric from the front sashing. The wonderful quilt blogs on the internet turned me on to pieced quilt backs and I just love them. Not only are they beautiful, it's a great way to use up every little piece of fabric.

When working on the front of the quilt I knew I needed 2 more blocks to round out the 7 days of the week blocks so the quilt would be a square. Since the embroidery was of little bears I thought a bear paw block would be fitting. I used this incredible book by Jinny Beyer to help draft the block. There is no way I would have been able to do it without her instructions. If you don't have it yet, this book is an essential to any quilter/sewer/designer. There are so many quilt blocks to use for inspiration. The first block I made was the one on the right. However, when it was done I knew the paw was to large and the block needed a frame around it. The orange fabric right next to the pink sashing was too busy. So I redrafted it to accommodate a border and still fit in with my quilt. Not one to let anything go to waste I just used the cast off for the back of the quilt.

Here is a close up of the Sunday block and the quilting. Im pretty new at quilting on my machine but this one turned out nice. I wanted something simple so I just followed the seam line.

To finish it off I always add a quilt label. I didn't always do this so there a few floating around that don't have one :(

I love the look of a hand embroidering the label. I think it adds a nice personal touch for whomever you are making the quilt for. I just choose a font and size I like in Word, then print it off and trace it onto my fabric with a water soluble pen. I most often do this on my back sliding glass door. I wonder what my neighbors think when I start taping bits of paper and fabric to it to trace?