Projects since Easter

So, the first project I started after Easter was this one.. I wanted to try the “Li’l Twister” tool, so I needed a simple graphic design that would show me the potential of this tool. I decided to do a cross, because I’d be able to put it in our church’s silent auction at Lobsterfest in the fall. It sold to a friend on Facebook, so now I have to make another one. Oops!

Here it is before I used the twister tool:

And after:

And then after quilting:

closeup:

back:

I made this little miniquilt and accessories for my the Fab Little Quilt Swap on Flickr. It’ll be my last Flickr Swap for a while — probably until the next FLQS. In my emotional state this spring, I took any negative comments a little too personally and I’ve decided to take a break from swapping online.

And here’s the back of that one.

I tried Rayna Gillmans’ improv techniques and assembled this small piece (40″x33″) from a colorway that’s slightly outside of my comfort zone. It was a fantastic experience, and I’m looking forward to quilting it soon:

I got the $35 Experiment, aka “Red Sky at Night” finished at the end of May:

Closeup of the quilting:

Back of that one:

(still in the “don’t buy anything new” phase, I continue to make scrappy backings… I’ve decided I really love the look because it creates interest on the back. Not the people look at the back much, but I like that it’s not all one fabric.)

And I finished this one that same week — quilted with all-over meandering feathers, something I had been wanting to master but hadn’t found the right quilt to do that way yet. I still haven’t figured out what to call it. “Thanksgiving?” “Sparks?” I don’t know.

Here’s a closeup of the back of that one so you can see the meandering feathers. I was SO excited about how these turned out that I’ve been quilting feathers on everything this summer.

I bought this linen fabric and decided to make myself a two-layered skirt out of it. I couldn’t find a pattern I liked so I pulled a skirt from my closet that I really like and created my own pattern. The zipper doesn’t line up perfectly but I don’t really care. And I’ve lost so much weight since I made this that I’m going to have to take it in so it’s not hanging down around my hips when school starts. But that’s fine with me!

I finished all of the blocks in the 2012 Designer Mystery Block of the Month from Fat Quarter Shop. Because I was economical with my cutting, I was able to get two blocks out of the materials sent every month. I added the house block in the center because this quilt was the fabric therapy that I needed to help recover from the stress of the fire. I’ll do a whole post on about this quilt, because there’s a story about it that needs to be told.

The Cross quilt led to a commissioned piece that I’m still working on:

and:

I started working on the Farmer’s Wife Sampler blocks… Jerry gave me the book several years ago for Christmas and I hadn’t started them. I don’t know what I’ll do with these, but they’re fun and mindless when I’m between projects but want to work on something quick:

I’m about 2/3 of the way through making about 80 wonky log cabins in Cherrywood Fabrics for a swap with local quilting friends… These are slow to make but I think they’ll be cool when assembled into a quilt:

I finished assembling the Christmas Block of the Month from Fat Quarter Shop also. Now to make the back from the leftover fabrics and quilt it in time to hang it this year!

Made an Easy Breezy BackSack for Alice that I promised her more than 2 years ago. It’s a Lizzie B Creative pattern, and very simple to put together. I used a magnetic snap rather than Velcro, since I didn’t have any Velcro on hand the night I made it.

Using leftover fabrics from the Christmas BOM quilt, I embellished store-bought kitchen towels in holiday fabrics and made a Bento-style casserole carrier for a wedding gift for my cousin’s daughter.

And that led to the idea of making fancy linen hand towels to sell at an upcoming craft show. Here’s my first prototype. I have since gotten the pattern idea a little more perfected, but this is a pretty cool start. And I’ll keep this one since it looks good in our house:

Our beloved 12.5-year-old Collie, Linus, died on June 25. I needed the therapy that machine quilting provides and I didn’t have anything layered, so I fixed that on June 27 and layered two very large quilts (over 1100 safety pins used!). Here are two of my basting assistants on one of them:

Both of those quilts have occupied most of my sewing time since, and they’ll get their own posts when they’re finished. I’m very pleased with how they look quilted. You can see progress on both of them on my Instagram stream.

And last weekend, I made these two dresses using Patty Young’s Kyoko pattern by ModKid Boutique. I originally bought these fabrics in early March 2012 to make dresses for my children, but the fire derailed those plans. Now my children want me to make them clothes but then they refuse to wear them. So I made these in the sizes of my friend’s kids, and she will get First Right of Refusal on them before I sell them elsewhere. They turned out really cute and I’m happy with them. I’m going to make matching dolly outfits out of the leftover fabrics, too:

So yeah. I’ve been busy. What’s amazing is that I’ve pretty much kept up with the laundry and the house isn’t a total disaster, either. Obviously I’m feeling better. 🙂