Two Sashiko Projects

Small Quilted Thingamajig Catch-Up Post

I made this for a mini-swap. Not too shabby for my first DWR!


I even liked the way the back turned out.


This was what I made for the spring pillow swap.


I had been desperately wanting to do some low volume EPP... The result made me not so happy. But meh. Luckily it is a potholder so it will be covered with sauce anyways.


Here is the back with the quilting. I also forgot to change the bobbin thread. Meh, all around on this poor potholder.


This was what I came up with for the fall pillow swap...


Back zipper/envelope closure.


Fabric close-up


Then I made a postcard for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Wooo.


This was what I came up with for the Teal Mini Swap for Ovarian Cancer on Facebook. It is a Lone Starburst.


I got a little crazy with my new walking foot. Oooops!


And this is what I'm working on for the winter pillow swap. To be continued...

Winter Prep: Part 2

In between teaching and grading I have managed to fit in some much-needed sewing. The sewing has been much needed because the projects have had time constraints and for stress release since I have one student who is being a total jerkface. I won't talk about that because thinking about it makes me involuntarily grind my teeth. Instead I will focus on the sewing!

I finished the matching mustache tree potholders for my BFF and I. The piecing process was detailed over here. First off, here is the detail on the star. The thread is metallic so it sparkles a little!

Then there is a close-up shot of the mustache stitching. The photo is at such an extreme angle to show how poofy the mustaches came out! It looks like trapunto (which I have no idea how to do!). The accidental way I pulled this off was by using fusible web applique for the mustaches then by machine quilting around them but not on them. If you want the mustache templates I drew up, let me know and I can send them to you.


Finally we have an overall shot showing both of them. Mine is the one without the hanging tab.


Over the weekend my boyfriend and I were able to fit in some homebrewing! This is a batch of Imperial Red IPA. Yum! Now we just have to wait for it to be ready.


There was also some marathon cooking going on. First off we have these strawberry basil grilled cheese sandwiches which were delicious, though we doubled the basil to ensure we could taste it. The cheese was a little lost, so maybe stronger cheese next time. Recipe over here.


We also made some amazingly delicious caramelized garlic tart. Seriously, this was one of the most delicious quiche things I have ever tasted. It could totally use some veggies though, like spinach or asparagus. The recipe is from Martha Stewart but we didn't use puff pastry for the crust. Instead we used the olive oil pie crust recipe from Vegan Pie in the Sky, which you can find over here. Or you can just buy the book and learn the secret to my peach basil pie!


Oh my gosh, it is so gorgeous!

I broke all my rules and took on another commissioned t-shirt quilt. The only commissioned quilts I have ever done are t-shirt quilts, and the only t-shirt quilts I have made are commissioned quilts. Because of this, I don't know if I hate making t-shirt quilts or commissioned quilts. Anyways, here is the initial layout, which was too long and skinny.

So I added some sashing from leftover t-shirt bottoms to make it a little wider and came up with this for the front. Now I just need to quilt and bind it so that I can deliver it in time for it to be given as a Christmas present. 

On a happy albeit unrelated note, Finn, our betta is finally happy! We got him a heater and he loves it. Check out this incredible bubble net he made to show how happy he is! 

The last bit of marathon cooking was pork loin roasted with veggies and mustard gravy (recipe over here). Ooo, this turned out so tasty! Our piece of pork was smaller so it cooked up very quickly.


The last bit of holiday prep sewing I have been working has been really fun. For background information, my family is super nerdy and if you put us all in a room together, it is likely that we will start playing Dungeons & Dragons. Because of this, I have an assortment of dice, trinkets and pencils to locate and pack prior to any family function. I really wanted a small bag/pouch thing to hold it all in so it could be contained and more easily packed. While searching for an appropriate bag, I discovered that nearly all dice bags are drawstring which seems silly to me because dice and pencils can fall out the drawstring. So it dawned on me that I could just make a totally awesome zippered pouch!

I decided to use part of a t-shirt for one side (stay tuned because that is staying secret) and a super cool dragon for the other side! The dragon pattern is from the book Spellbinding Quilts which is full of incredible stuff (seriously, you need to get this book. It might as well be called "Harry Potter and LOTR Paper Pieced patterns). I shrunk it down because the original block size was huge. This resulted in so many teeny tiny bits that needed to be paper pieced. It took about 3 hours! Sheesh! Hopefully I can still finish this in time to play D&D for X-mas!

So this is what I came up with. I bought the green/gold fabric in Ketchikan, Alaska while on a cruise with my family. We totally played D&D on the cruise ship (which is not surprising since we have played D&D in Japan and Hawaii). The purple fabric that looks blue was leftover from a baby quilt. I promise it is purple. For some reason, my phone cannot photograph this fabric as purple. My boyfriend's phone can, but the picture wasn't as clear! The same thing happened when I used it in a baby girl quilt. Everyone kept giving me grief for using so much blue in a baby quilt, but it was purple in real life!!

I have the dragon sitting in front of me right now, and this is what the purple actually looks like. I promise! 

Anyways, hopefully I can finish everything that needs to be done in time for their respective deadlines. I am completely caught up on grading until I administer final exams and my students submit projects next week. Wow! I actually get a weekend!

Winter Prep: Part 1

It finally got cold here in South Texas for about a week, so it felt like winter. Of course cold for South Texas is 40-50 degrees. Today we are back into the low 80s, but it should be getting cold again this weekend!

Anyways, the cold weather motivated me to work on Christmasy stuff that needed to get worked on. First of which is the tree skirt for my boyfriend's sister. It all started last December when we were at her house while she was decorating her tree. I noticed she didn't have a skirt and inquired about this. She couldn't find one without color and over-the-top holidayness, so I offered to make one.

That means I have been working on this for almost a year! The last time I had even touched this was back in July when I finished the front. You can read all about that over here. 

But the cold weather was a wonderful motivator and I was able to quilt it up and bind it in time to deliver it to her on Thanksgiving! The quilting includes stipple in the grey between the 3D crinkle grey and the blueish grey flower stuff along with stitch in the ditch everywhere else since the batting was super poofy and not very quilting friendly. The grey strips that make up the stars are actually glittery. So much monochromatic goodness!


I also started working on some matching hot pads for one of my BFFs. She and I are both highly unusual, which probably explains why we get along so well. Anyways, we both love mustaches, so I decided to make us appliqued mustache trees! Does anyone want the mustache applique templates I created? If so, let me know so I can post them.


And what would be a Christmas tree without a star on top?? I could have easily made little bitty wonky stars, but when I visualize tree-topping stars, I see 5-point stars. I decided the easiest way to accomplish this was with foundation paper piecing, so I used this pattern and scaled it down to 25%, which ended resulted in 3" unfinished stars. I am fairly proud of those y-seams! [Hilarious side note, when I just went to get the link for the pattern, an advertised pattern on the side menu was for a mustache tree mug rug that doesn't look much like mine. Apparently I am not TOO original.]


I also made a batch of Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls. Baking these is my one and only holiday tradition. It also happens to be a super tasty tradition!


The cold also made me decide to try my hands at Fair Isle knitting. I can knit, but am incapable of doing anything more complex than squares and rectangles, so this was a big leap. After watching 5 YouTube videos, I managed to make this swatch. FYI: This was my first time knitting in the round, so it got twisted and turned into a mobius strip.


Have no fear! I casted on (or is cast on present and past tense?) a new set of stitches and managed to not get them twisted, so this new set will eventually make it all the way to scarf. Pictures will be posted when it actually looks like something.

Hand Sewingpalooza!

Maybe it is my busy work schedule, maybe it is the [seemingly] never-ending move, maybe it is just me being lazy because it has been cloudy and rainy for a few weeks (and it is never cloudy and rainy in South Texas. We are in a horrible drought!) but I just haven't been able to find the motivation to fit in sewing as of late. That being said, I have been on a mission to do sewing.

You see, I really want to work on a houndstooth cover for my vintage cedar chest reuppholstery project, but I can't find the stinking ruler I need. Here's the thing, no one in town has it so I ordered it from Amazon. It arrived a week late and broken into two pieces, so I returned it and got a full refund which left me with still no ruler. I have been to over 10 shops in the surrounding area (September is Texas shop-hop month aka Quilt Across Texas) and no one has it! Uggh. So here is my plea: Have you seen this ruler?? If so, please tell me where!

Okay! On with the sewing. First up I have a picture of all the beautiful 3" half hexies I finished basting. Well, not all. I finished 120, but had already sewn 14 together at this point. Have no fear; I will show you what I have sewn together! I have no idea how big this quilt is going to end up, but I have known from the beginning that I do not want fabrics to repeat. Luckily this gave me something to buy during the shop-hop since I couldn't buy the ruler I really wanted. Here are all my hexies!

When I travel with my hexies, I am always scared their edges are going to get bent. If I put them in a zippered pouch, they can get bent up with the bag, if I put them in a rigid pencil box, they have too much room and can slide around. I was starting to think they wouldn't be able to travel with me, and really, what is the point of an EPP project if it can't travel? Then I found an empty mask box lying around! I'm a scuba dive leader, so I have way too much scuba gear, but in this case it totally paid off! Look at how well they all fit in here!

So perfect for 3" half hexagons!
 

I had sewn one pinwheel together last week and left it at home. Then I went out of town and had some time to sew, but I had forgotten completely which direction I had the first pinwheel going. I had a 50/50 shot of getting it right and of course I got it wrong. So now I don't know which direction to sew the rest in. Ripping it apart is going to be hard. Maybe I will just make a second quilt with the pinwheels going the opposite direction. That seems like less work, right? Making an entirely separate quilt to avoid ripping out a few stitches. FYI: I said I had 14 stitched together and each pinwheel only has 6. The final two are in the upper right corner of this picture.


I also started working on the applique I'm doing for the Secret Tote Bag Swap. I'm getting so excited about it! Hopefully I will be able to suck it up and get some machine sewing done this week. :)

Flags for Boston

I decided to make some flags for the To Boston With Love quilty flag project. They are asking for bright and cheery flags that embody love and peace. The flags are actually going to be displayed in Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

I made a total of six flags, and they all have special meaning to me, which I am thinking is one of the points of this project. If you made one or more flags, I find it nearly impossible that you would be making them with absolutely no love in your heart.

The two peace signs represent the peace I am trying to send to Boston, and the peace we are all able to learn from the people of Boston as they grieve, cope, and live. The pattern for these cute hexagonal peace signs comes from Berene at Happy Sew Lucky and can be found over here. Side note: I paper pieced the inside of the peace sign in the hope that it would come out tidier.

Then I made an appliqued heart for every person I have known and loved that had ever lived in Boston. These first two are for my mom and my cousin Julia. They both attended Wellesley College, which is just outside of Boston. My mom wanted me to make it known to everyone that the blue one is for her.

These last two are for a friend from college and a very close family friend. The family friend (I have known her since she was a wee little kiddo) lives in Boston now, and it was difficult to know she was there by herself during all of this. But she is a tough little cookie.

HS: Home Sick or Hand Stitching?

I am fairly certain I have contracted the bubonic plague.

That means I have spent nearly all of the past two days snoozing on the couch. For an insomniac, being able to actually sleep is already impressive enough, but sleeping during the day AND night illustrates how sick I truly am. 

In between naps I have been doing some hand stitching. This is what will be the front of the pouch I am making for the Pretty Little Pouch Swap. 

Here is a reverse shot showing the hand stitching and thread colors! 

The back of the pouch is going to be the green version of the woven fabric panel I made in this tutorial over here.

I also managed to start this ridiculous bit of applique for myself. Apparently this is what a fever does to my brain. The fabric styles are so random, which makes me like it more. This version where it is now is definitely underwhelming, don't you think? 

My TA Josh suggested more flowers to add depth. So I cut out more wildflowers and am playing around with this now. I will need fusible web for these additional flower bits because my machine applique is not too great yet. It still feels like something is missing, though. Any suggestions??

Well, I'm off to go back to sleep. Maybe I won't get banished from work tomorrow. Or maybe I will and I can fit in more napping and sewing.