I need to win the lottery...

...or conversely, to discover that I had some long, lost-to-me relative who left me a fortune.  Then, I would have ample time to dedicate to actually using my sewing machine.

Not gonna lie people, I hadn't touched the sucker in a really long time.  If it weren't for the fact that I'm kind of a neat freak, I'm sure there would have been a thick layer of dust on the thing.  So long in fact, that I (of all people) couldn't find the folder with my block of the month patterns in it.  Jeez.  Super Jeez.  Working my butt off is seriously cramping my style.  Ha.

Yesterday and today however, I took a little time to get back on the horse.  I was inspired.  Here's the semantic map in my brain...Pink Castle had a fabric sale --> I wanted fabric --> I looked at pretty fabric --> I thought to myself, "Self, where will you put this lovely new fabric you are lusting after?" --> I know! If I get rid of some by using it, I will have room for new fabric! --> Start on new project. --> Order pretty new fabric --> Repeat at some random point in the future.  I'm sure some of you can relate.

At the first guild meeting of the month, one of the guild women started a sort-of block of the month...well...more like a 1/9th-of-a-quilt-over-9 months-of-the-month.  Its made with all squares and half-square triangles and the finished product will have kind of a pixellated look.  I think the concept is cool, it really just involves sewing straight lines, it can use up some scraps, and it involves Very. Little. Planning.  I will struggle with this part but I do need to learn to let go.

So I chose my fabrics, and cut them up into squares.  I decided to go with six different lightish colours in this section of the quilt:

Going to go with orange and blue and use the massive amounts of leftover fabric from my sister's Star Dust quilt.

Then I had to throw caution to the wind and lay it out in a generally random fashion.  This caused an inner conflict so large I needed to do it and then let it sit for a while before I committed to attaching the pieces together.

I'm not sure I love it but I know its one of those things that will look entirely different sewn together than it will in 100 pieces.

And this is what it looks like in rows - I still have to sew the rows together but I already like it better than I did early this afternoon.  

Pretty sure that the darker it gets, the more I am going to like it.  I will be nine panels like this one.

So this is the top left of the quilt  By the time we get to the bottom right, there will be navy blues and royal blues.  Way darker.  Should be a cool experiment though.

Now...if only I could keep this weekend sewing momentum going.

Last post of the summer

I'm sad.  A little.  I love my job (like LOVE) and I'm pretty excited about this school year and all the kids and stuff but I had a good summer so I'm kinda sad to see it go.  Alas, Thanksgiving is in five weeks and then Christmas is around the corner so I won't be sad for long.  I'm not gonna lie, in preparation for what the weeks ahead hold I'm just sitting here in my living room in the dark and silence (I don't do well in intense busy-ness for long periods at a stretch.  I need some silence) enjoying the last few hours of Labour Day.

I hit up the sewing machine for a couple more small last-minute projects before we get into the routine of the year yesterday and took some pictures but then forgot to blog them.  Whoops.  Good call to do it today before I totally forget.

I need to get back on the horse with the smaller versions of the Lucky Stars Blocks.  When the summer hit, I got caught up on what I was behind in the 12.5 inch blocks but ended up shoving all the scraps from the big blocks into Ziploc bags while I worked on Out in Space.  The blocks from the spring had so many fiddly little pieces that I couldn't imagine doing the smaller versions.  Today, I decided to attack one of those minis.  I cannot procrastinate or this will end up being one of those UFOs in the bottom drawer of the guest room.

See how small these are? I stuck my pencil in the shot to give an idea.  My poor eyeballs. 

But at the end, it ended up pretty.  Can't complain.

The half sized version I made on top of the larger one I did months ago. 

Then, after this took me ridiculously longer than it should have cuz I'm clearly working at summer vacation speed. I needed to get something accomplished.  So I made two more cable/workshop pouches.  Lynn, looks like you rank!

Perfectly sized to stash iDevice cables, cell phone chargers and other items at workshops. 

And on that note, I'm off to bed - gotta get up for school in the morning!

Quilt Hangover = Small Projects

Last week I finished what I can only describe as a "giganormous" quilt for my sister.  I'm not gonna lie, it left me with a bit of a quilt hangover.  You know that feeling, you finish something that consumed both your mental energy and physical time for so long that you can't imagine diving right back in again?  I think that's why I typically intersperse big projects with small ones.  After a quilt, I'll make a lunch bag, or another kind of bag, or a wallet, or pouches.  That's just what I did today.

You see, we've been back at work full throttle this week before the school year begins.  Today, we had a unit meeting and I travel with a lot of electronics.  I have a personal cell phone, a work cell phone, and an iPad which I use to take notes.  Additionally, when we get resources and handouts, I like to tab, highlight and write in the margins.  So naturally, I have to cart a bunch of cables and other office supplies around.  I solved this dilemma by making myself a pouch that pretty well lies flat so I can shove it in my purse or cart it around with my actual iPad.  When I took out a pen today, my Principal saw my pouch and simply said "I want one."  In the interest of not engaging in a career-limiting move, that's what I made tonight.

This is some left-over Amy Butler Lotus fabric I had from a bag I made.

The first step is choosing the fabrics.  They have to match both the function of the pouch and be something she won't mind having on the table at meetings and workshops.  Then I had to make sure I had a zipper in the right colour and length cuz there was NO way I was going back out tonight! After a precariously stacked pile of fabric fell on my head as I tried to root through drawers to find a matching one....SCORE!

Then I put the front together.  I used a Lazy Girl pattern so it was a relatively quick and simple job.  Sewed the zipper into the top and bottom rectangles (folded right sides together) then pressed the fabric back.

Tried to line up the lotus flowers as well as I could.  Not too shabby!

Then really, it was a matter of layering the lining fabric, batting, back and front (zipper side down) and sewing around the perimeter.  A quick trip through the serger to finish the edges and then flip it right sides out and voila!

All ready for the next meeting!

Now I just have to remember to take it to school tomorrow.  Ha.  Onto my next small project....PILLOWS!

Finished Quilt: Out in Space

So...where have I been all damned summer?  Ha. I have no idea where the time went.  For the first time in my working life,  I had the whole summer to do with as I pleased and I enjoyed every waking moment of it. Although I will certainly appreciate a return to the routine, I'm not ready...its too soon!  There's more fun to be had!  I'm back to work starting Monday and so I'm glad I got a quilt finished - it gives me some small sense of accomplishment that I didn't waste my entire summer being unproductive!

Thought maybe I'd share it with you -- you know, before we hit Labour day weekend and all.

Out in Space

As I have mentioned before, I made this quilt for one of my sisters.  She leaves on Sunday for four years to pursue her Ph. D in Astro-Physics.  Every time I say or write that, it makes me feel super dumb.  Anyhow, I'm really proud of her and am going to miss her a ton.  This quilt is so she can take a piece of home with her and so I can still feel connected to her across the miles.  I hope she enjoys it as its the most ambitious thing I have ever tried to make.  It took forever.  By forever I of course mean WAY longer than I ever anticipated.  She's lucky to be worth it!

Close up of centre

I did echo-quilting around each and every triangle piece in the centre meteor.  There are hundreds of triangles in this thing.  Hundreds.  At one point I wondered if I would ever finish.  I thought of setting my sewing machine on fire but didn't want to have to explain that to the fire-fighters.  

A bit better view of the swirl quilting in the massive amounts of negative space

This shows the pieced backing a little and the binding

The back

You can get a good look at the quilting details here.  I did an all-over swirl in the negative spaces.  I like how the effect turned out on the back.  Almost like a lunar eclipse - how fitting!

My "scraps"

On instagram I asked the important question -- If I can fill a shoebox with the neatly folded leftovers, does it still count as scraps.  Seriously people, I think I could make a whole second quilt top with these leftovers.  

The best part of the experience though.....

I used the practice and quilting of this top to trick my friend Alice into giving free-motion quilting a try.  I made a scrap sandwich and she went to town - even wrote her name!  She said it was fun...I'll get her hooked yet!

So I'm gifting this to my sister this weekend.  I'll let you know how she reacts!

The Make Your Own Shop Hop!

Today my quilty friends A and L  and I went on a little self made shop hop.  We had the luxury of a mid-week summer day off and so we hit the road.  Our first stop was a place called Elmwood Village.

This place looked great online.  A big space in an old heritage building with a showcase of fabrics that have a modern appeal - I was excited to go.  Unfortunately, when we got there, we found only the lower left part of the building was being used.  There wasn't much selection.  This place has so much potential.  Too bad.

Really, at the end of the day, this little guy was my favourite part of that shop.  This dog was hella cute!  Want!

From there we went to lunch and ran a couple errands and then headed to JoAnn's.  I had never been in one before but HELLO!  Not too too much in terms of fabrics I would want to buy but a ton of linings and interfacings and they had Queen-sized Warm and Natural Batting for $17.  That's super-crazy insane cheap.  Thanks to L, I got two!  I will go there again....and again....and again.

After that we headed back over to our side of the border and made it to Bee Modern Fabrics and Yarn.

I love this store.  Love.  There was all kinds of goodness in there that was right up my alley.  I could have dropped some serious money in here.  You know, if I hadn't just been fabric shopping last weekend.  :)

L and I each picked up 10 fat quarters apiece.  We then laughed about how our tastes, although both modern, we totally and completely different from one another.  It almost looked like we were trying to pick opposites!

L's fabric choices are in the top row, while mine are in the bottom.  

The final stop of the day was a place called Kindred Spirits in St. Catherines.  I didn't buy anything there.  They had some moda stuff that appealed to me a little but nothing screamed out for me to take it home.

I think it might have had something to do with the fact that we went here AFTER Bee Modern.  Oh well.  I had an awesome day with a couple friends.

Now, I get to do this:

Epic summer day.  :)

This thing is gigantic

I think this might be the biggest quilt I've ever made.

Today, I started back in on getting some rows finished for the Space Dust quilt.  I thought a good goal would be trying to get in one more row than I had done yesterday.  At that point, this is what she looked like:

I like how angular it all is.

And then it was only mid-afternoon and I really had nothing else to do....so I kept going.  By the time I went a smidge stir crazy after supper time, I had this much finished:

This means there are only two more rows to go!

Then, once I pulled this rookie maneuver, I realized the universe was telling me to go do something else for a while.  

Thats right, sewed on my piece and then promptly trimmed it right off again.  Sheesh.

 I was able to salvage the piece of fabric, but that was my last block of the day.  Maybe I can be finished the top by the end of the weekend?!?  Maybe!

Space dust...the beginning

Since I got all caught up on my BOMs, I decided it was time to get cracking on some stuff I want to have finished before the end of the summer.  Primary among these is the Space Dust quilt I'm making for my sister to take with her when she moves to the Netherlands.  I dug the crap-load of fabric (Lizzy House Constellations with coordinating Pearl Bracelets and solids) out of my closet and started with the plan.  I didn't initially realize how intense the plan would become.  I SHOULD have.  I mean cripes,  it is ME planning this thing after all!  Here's how it started...

This is what Tula's looks like

I looked up the fabric placement for Tula Pink's original design. Then, realizing that I was going for a more monochromatic look - I needed to adjust the photo.  So I took a shot in instagram and changed it to black and white.

This way, I can see how the tones are placed so I can get my placement right.

I then looked at the fabrics I had chosen for this project and laid them all out so I could see them.

So awesome and pretty and beautiful.  I want to have this for me!

And did the same thing with this photo - changed it to black and white so I could organize my fabrics by their tone rather than their colour.

Going to black and white totally changes your perception of the fabrics.

At this point, I could start mapping.  I compared (by making a two column chart) my fabrics from light to dark with the ones used in the original design.  Once I had done that, I could sub in my fabrics for the ones Tula used so that the tonal combination would remain similar.

This process required multi-media, pencils, diagrams and a crossword puzzle for distraction purposes.

I'm serious when I say that literally, HOURS later, I had mapped the thing out and translated my colour choices onto each of the paper templates.  There are...I think....46 of them.  46.  I wanted to die doing this...I could seriously screw myself over if I made a mistake.  

All finished!  Ready to cut my border and binding strips and start piecing!

I finally got to start sewing!  Its not too complicated from this point on.  I mean, it IS paper pieced but all the pieces are so huge and they are all either triangles or quadrangles, it goes pretty fast.

This is block A.  See?  Easy peasy.  and it looks pretty cool.

I got the first row done before I decided that maybe I should take a break and provide an update.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

Please excuse the weird picture - I used the panorama function on my iPhone.  

Now, I'm taking a for real break to head to the movies!  Yay!