Autumn Love Block #1

So many cobwebs in this place. So many! And not the fun Halloween-y kind - it's the kind that collect from abuse and neglect. But here I am, at it again. Why? Riley Blake was kind enough to ask me to be a part of their Autumn Love Sew Along, and the answer was HECK YEAH! I love autumn, and Lori Holt's new line of autumn-themed fabrics is really beautiful. It's full of rich, deep fall colors. The best part, for an orange lover like me, is that there is no shortage of great orange prints. Typically, you're lucky to get one orange print in a line of fabric, but Lori has designed six orange prints for this line (seven including the one on the scrappy sixth panel).

A different blogger will be sharing a different block each week. I'm doing the first one, the crow and pumpkin block. It's the one in the sew along graphic.

Want to see the other blocks or sew along with Lori? Head on over to her blog for all the information you need to get started. I've got too many irons in the fire, so I'll just be doing a few of the blocks as smaller projects instead of the quilt. I was planning on just doing one project, but like the old Jacqueline Susann novel, once just is not enough.  Here's the block before I sewed down the applique pieces and squared it up to 10.5".

Isn't she adorable? I hadn't trimmed her yet, so Ms. Crow has really long supermodel legs. Next I added a 3" scrappy border all around it so I can use my 16" pillow form.

I love all the colors, and the embroidered vine by the stem is a fun touch. Then I backed it with some batting and muslin, quilted around each of the individual applique pieces, got some fabric ready for an envelope style (so many tutorials for that...here, here, here and many others), added the binding and voila...

Ready to go, out on the living room armchair. I'm in love with it. I think it's a great showcase for all those colors and prints.

I wanted to do something else with the pumpkin and crow appliques, but I wanted to change the flower up a bit and make a project that's a bit bigger. I grabbed the leaf template that was used for the flower and made a few petals for another flower design.

I cut the corners off so there was less bulk underneath the center of the flower and made a couple others with different prints as well.

The buttons will be sewn on each one after I'm further along.

Here are the rest of the pieces, stacked up and ready to be laid out. I used scraps from a couple other Riley Blake basics lines - Kisses for the bird beak and legs, and Shades for the bird body and wings and the pumpkin stems, and Bee Basics and Bake Sale 2 for the flowers.

I decided on a runner. It's not everyone's bag, but I've come to really appreciate the meditative benefits and dimensionality of hand applique. It's time consuming, for sure, but I love it. So, it's going to take me some time to finish this one. I've glued down all the pieces and gotten a start on some of the applique. Here she is in progress...

It'll be another couple of weeks before I finish it, but the effort will be worth the wait, I think. I plan to add another 3" border scrappy border along the top to coordinate with the pillow. Once it's all done, I'll post a follow up. Until then, enjoy those last days of summer!

Look, Ma! I Finished Somethin'!

I wouldn't say my quilting has gone by the wayside - I always have something on the burner - but it's definitely taken a backseat to crochet lately. I'm keeping myself busy rather than idling away the hours doing nothin' or nothin' good, but today I finished one.

I volunteer weekly for Haven Housing, and this one will be a donation for their annual spring fundraiser. My extra set of arms are in the shop this week, so I don't have a shot of the full thing. There is a shot of the completed top on my Instagram page if you head on over there for a look see. This was a block-of-the-month of sorts, using the pattern included with the Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler Box each month. Each basket block was designed by Lori Holt, and I used Riley Blake Confetti Cottons for all the bright solids.

Speaking of both Lori Holt and of crochet, she shared a quick(ish) project for these hot pads a few weeks back. We were in the middle of an April snowstorm, so I was in a Christmas mood.

The red one was my first crochet project. It was several weeks between that one and the completion of the green one on the left, and I think it's evident in the tightness of the stitches on the first. It was a fun project, and I've no doubt I'll be making more in the future.

Till next time...

How Many Crafts Can One Do?

I've recently taken up crochet. Why? I dunno. Keep my mind and brain occupied. Idle hands, ya know. I ordered a set of crochet hooks and they came in this fancy pantsy bag...

Yeah. That big is not really my bag, man. Know what I mean? The contents of the bag suited my needs, but the cheap flowery bag had to go. I wanted something more my style and a little bigger to also hold a small ball of yarn. I pulled out some fabric that I've held onto for a couple of years now.

Now that's more my style! Everyday is Halloween (if I had my way anyway). I dug out a coordinating orange solid for the top and for the lining, along with some batting to give it some bulk. I wanted this to be a quicker project and didn't want to deal with any quilting, so I sewed the top and back to the batting as I went.

Soon enough, it was zipper time. I dislike sewing zippers. Intensely. Immensely. I don't find it especially difficult, but I do find it tedious. I'm also on the edge of my seat hoping I don't break a needle. And I did today. Twice. It makes me jump. Maybe I need to learn how to do it better (or properly?), but it did turn out nicely once I added the top stitching.

Once that was done, the rest was a relative breeze. I sewed the sides together, boxed the bottom corners and Bob's yer uncle! I little bag for some doodads.

Isn't it just the most precious thing you've ever seen? No? Well, me either, but it's serving its purpose.

It's Dusty Up in Here

It's been...quite a while since I've visited my own blog. Laziness? Not really. Still working away on all things quilty. I'm just not a good blogger, and no matter the strength of any resolution to change that, it may not happen. Nonetheless, a couple of things that have taken up my time recently.

I've been a fan of The Golden Girls since it first aired, so this was a really fun project. I used a cross stitch pattern by weelittlestitches and converted it to a quilt top, converting each cross stitch to one inch of fabric. I used Lori Holt's Spelling Bee for the lettering. It'll be quilted in the next few weeks and then I'll add embellishments - buttons for jewelry. Riley Blake's beautiful line of solids, Confetti Cottons, made up the entire quilt. I have no idea where the Girls will end up when they're completed, but I'll be sad to see them go.

This is my current project. Well, one of several I'm working on at the moment. It's a Fons & Porter pattern called Diamonds and Pearls. The pattern suggested batiks, but I'm partial to prints so I used a two Riley Blakes basics lines - Kisses and Shades - for the blocks. Next up for this is the pieced border, using smaller diamond shapes. Borders are typically my least favorite part of any project. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to it, but it'll complete the project nicely. I love the harlequin look created by the diamonds and squares.

Susan Ache's fun, colorful book Start with Strips has lots of fun projects using 2.5" strips and this one was my favorite. I was on Christmas break when I got the book and managed to piece the whole quilt in a few days. Amazing what a little inspiration and a lot of OCD can produce! This one will be quilted in the next few weeks, because I have way too many UFO's to finish!

That's the haps right now. I'll be back with more next week!

Finishing Projects Left and Right

While I want to get my big queen-sized Aunt Gracie's Garden quilt, I've done a couple of other projects. The first - and most fun for me - is my Halloween Dresden plate quilt top. It's all done, and I just need to find the time to sit down and get it quilted.

I love it! I fell completely in love with the cauldron blocks; they're my favorite next to the ghost block. It's the first of two or three Halloween quilts I'll be making this year. One of these days, I'll finally get to quilting the Christmas quilt top I finished three years ago. Ugh.

It was also time to swap out the placemats on my dining room table. I've had the same autumn-themed ones there since late August. I finished a couple of 12" blocks from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book and turned them into placemats with little pockets for the silverware. I'm a leftie so I moved the pocket on my placemat to the left. :)

I'm more of a fall/winter guy, but I do love how these look super springy.

Holiday Projects...Already?

I've been putting off this project, and the fabric's been collecting dust, so it was time to do something about it. I know it's still March - though barely - but Halloween fabrics are hitting the market soon, so I'm in the mood. When this happens, I have to get to work or the feeling fades pretty quickly.

I've had this bundle of fabric for a while, Spooky Delights by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda Fabrics, and I'm finally putting it to use. I didn't even really have a real design idea when I sat down in front of the machine, but sometimes that's okay. Today it seems to have worked out, judging by block one anyway.

I decided on a cream spider print from the Happy Hauntings line by Riley Blake. Fun, right? Or creepy. I'll take fun or creepy.

I cut some 5" x 2.5" pieces from strip sets (which always feels like it takes foreeeeeeevvvveeer) and used a Dresden ruler to cut them.

Cutting is the worst part of quilting for me. I'll take ironing over it anyday, but pairing up the different fabrics for each block alleviates some of the boredom that task manifests. To lessen that monotony even more, I turned on one of my favorite Halloween films...



Halloween II. It's one of those movies I can recall seeing for the first time, and it's stuck with me all these years later. But back to the fabric!

Chain piecing the units through the machine is the fun part for me. Once I'm in the groove and let the machine do it's work by gobbling up each piece of fabric, I can feel the project coming together. A string of Dresden petals is kinda festive, like a series of pennants. Except even better, because they're Halloween pennants!

🎃  🎃  🎃  🎃  🎃

After that the Dresden plate comes together rather quickly.

It's cute enough on its own I think, but I figured I was going to be bored with just a plain circle in the center of the plate. That's when the idea clicked to add a Halloween-themed applique to the middle. It was also partially inspired by Lori Holt's Sweetie Pie sew-along. I had too many projects in the hopper or on hold (this being one of them) to participate, but I think this will fill that void. I'll to an a few different appliques to the center circle, but this is the first fella that came to mine.

Isn't he cute? My embroidery skills are really pretty basic, but I'd have to put them to use to give this fella some eyes and a mouth.

There he is in his final...resting place? I opted to applique him with black thread to give him a little more definition and make him stand out from the cream background fabric. His eyes aren't as even as I'd like them to be, but I shan't stress about it. I'll figure out some friends for him to be the center of the other blocks.

This is a quilt I'm looking forward to finishing. I just have to make sure I don't make it all up as I go along.

I Present to You - Aunt Gracie's Garden

I am done with this quilt top. DONE! Over three months in the making, and I'm so thrilled to be done with it. Not only because I love it, but because it was a challenge. Piecing the blocks wasn't terribly difficult and, in pieces, the applique itself wasn't either. However, there are a lot of applique pieces and getting them on was so time consuming.

At first, I wasn't sure if I should attach the borders and then add the applique or add the applique to the border and THEN attach the borders. I'm glad I did the applique first. It's quite a chore cajoling a queen-sized quilt around the sewing table. The corner flowers on the border had to go on last after the borders were attached. Honestly, I was about 60 seconds from throwing things at one point. I'm pretty even tempered, but the moving all the fabric around - and, at one point, getting a grease spot from sewing machine lubricant on the white fabric (gone now, thank goodness) - was frustrating.

By the end of it, I had to trim up the outer border because it had frayed quite a bit after being moved around so much. Mitered borders aren't my favorite and they're far from perfect, but I'm mostly happy with the outcome. Next, she gets quilted. I can't wait for this one to be done! It's the first, and probably last, queen-sized quilt I'll finish. Famous last words...

The quilt is 83" x 105" so it's too big to get a flat shot of the whole quilt in my small house. Here are some photos. Enjoy!

I'm also linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts! She does beautiful work and I love her fun patterns!