Spray Basting / WIP / Pre QuiltCon

First off: How many of you are going to Quilt Con?! I am so excited!! I live a mere 3.5 hours drive away, but I can only attend on Saturday. If you see me, please say hi! Also, I have tons of family in Austin and spend a lot of time up there so if anyone needs restaurant/bar/fabric shop recommendations, let me know! Now back to the present err, past...

Let me describe yesterday, which happened to be a typical winter day in Corpus Christi, Texas: we hit 80 degrees in the afternoon coupled with 65% humidity, and 40mph wind gusts with sustained winds of 20mph. Okay, okay, so it was 65 degrees day before yesterday and today and it isn't always this windy (usually 10-20mph is standard) but that just means in the summer it is at least 100 humid degrees outside, which means we have heat indices of 110+. Yuck.

Note: Do not ever try to spray baste an 84" x 84" quilt. EVER! Seven feet: What was I thinking?!?

But I digress; back to yesterday and my spray basting adventure. I decided it would be the perfect day to try my hand at spray basting. Aside from the fact that I had to spray baste outside in the vehemently uncooperative wind due to dogs inside and no easily cleanable/large enough surfaces, it was pleasant. Here are a few photos showing the process.

 It is not the spray basting's fault that because of the wind, I found myself screaming curse words in my driveway and furiously stomping on duct tape and mailing tape. Yes, it was so windy I had to tape nearly the entirety of the edges with duct tape, and it was still getting pulled up. I also ran out of duct tape, and switched to mailing tape. Then I ran out of mailing tape but luckily had a new roll that is now nearly gone. I do not blame the spray basting.

So, ignoring all of the things that could obviously not be attributed to the spray basting and doing a perfect world comparison of the two, ZOMG, I LOVE SPRAY BASTING! I want to move somewhere less windy just so I can use it all the time.  But if I moved, that would mean moving away from the adorable and territorial squirrel living by my garden who spent the whole time I was outside chattering at me. Literally folks, the whole time. Chatter chatter chatter.

I still pinned around the edges, just because I'm paranoid and a creature of habit, but gosh, this was not even necessary. Quilting was such a dream with the spray basting. That could be a spurious variable because this was my first time quilting on my new Husqvarna Viking Emerald machine.

I quilted diagonal lines 2 inches apart allover the quilt. I started the first diagonal line from corner to corner, marking it by taping a piece of yarn and tracing with a pencil and ruler. 

Here are some close-ups of the quilting! Mmm, I used Moda Crackle for the backing. 

So here is the whole quilt, in all its glory. I dub thee, Man Quilt. Everyone I show it to says "ohh, my husband/son/boyfriend/etc would love that!" which tells me it truly is the perfect quilt for my engineer boyfriend. I'm too practical and not at all romantic, so I gave it to him today instead of saving it for his birthday. Did I mention it is 7 feet by 7 feet? That makes photographing difficult.

Thanks to the horrible wind, here is a photo showing how the backing coordinates with the front.

Also, the wind was so bad that the quilt was stuck to the fence which was cracking me up.

 I have been trying to wrap up a few little projects this week. I managed to finish two more of the cathedral window pincushions for my friends. This first one is for Toni.

This second one is for Rhonda.

I also finished the giant cathedral window pillow for my friend/dive buddy/yoga instructor, Salinda.

For scale, this is the pillow next to the pincushions.

Today I also finished the February block of the month basket block from the local brick and mortar quilt shop I go to. This one was much more enjoyable to make than the one from last month.

Lastly, I pulled this out of the bowels of my fabric bins. When I first started quilting, and had only made easy peasy 6" square patchwork quilts, I decided to make an eye. I didn't know what paper piecing was. I didn't know what applique was. I didn't know how to assemble a y-seam. Somehow I managed to make this, and got so frustrated that I put it away forever until now. Hopefully it will get closer to being an eye soon. 

WIP

This is going to be a very quick post because I got so carried away writing this tutorial for a passport cover that I forgot to write my WIP Wednesday entry for the week and it is already 11:44pm. Uhhoh!

First off, the passport cover and the tutorial for it (^see up there for linky^) can safely be crossed off my WIP list. After researching patterns and tutorials for waaaay too long, I decided to make my own since not one that fit my needs seemed to exist. Every passport cover pattern I found had space for at least 2 passports, but most were designed to fit all of the passports for a family with kids. I am a single traveler with no kids, so a passport cover that fits 6 passports seems fairly impractical, dontchathink? So I made up a pattern. Woo.

This second picture was included simply to show off the best pages in my passport with stamps from Japan, France, & Bonaire, oh my!

 I also made up another of the cathedral window pincushions for a friend who loved the one I made for myself. Now about 4 other people want pincushions, so I have an excuse to make more! Yay!

Then my friend/scuba dive buddy/yoga instructor (wow, she sure is a lot of things to me!) asked if I could make this into throw pillow size. So I did some research and found nothing! All cathedral window pillows I found were made of a bunch of tiny ones. I took this as a personal challenge and came up with a 15" block in the same format as the pincushions. The pillow still needs to be assembled, so come back next week for pictures.

This week I also found something tremendously exciting... My broccoli plants are producing a head of broccoli!! Take that, cabbage worms! Once it gets a little bigger, it will be removed which should trigger the plant to start making full-sized heads of broccoli! I'm a broccoli farmer!! Spweee!

I also decided to use the circle of flying geese paper pieced block for my 3x6 block of this quarter. I am in the pinwheel hive, and although it isn't exactly a pinwheel, it does have pinwheelesque characteristics that make it work. I even finished two out of six blocks already and the quarter just started last week!

And last but definitely not least, I convinced myself to suck it up and pick color placements for the quilt I'm making for my boyfriend. He picked the pattern and a good amount of the fabric (green is his favorite color) but I just could not decide where to put all the fabrics. Somehow over the past few days I got all of the fabric cut for the main panel of the quilt and was able to piece it all up last night and today.  First we have the overall main chunk that just needs borders (right now it is only 50" x 50"). Ack. The border fabric. I bought too many options and now I can't decide what to use.

Then a close-up shot to show the fabric selections. He picked a good amount of the fabric, so I can't take credit for all of it. But gosh, it just all works so well together that I wish I could! ;-)

This was my first time using the design wall I made a few weeks ago, and it was so incredible! I could lay out all of the strips and even caught a few mistakes before the rows were all joined. You know, when it isn't an absolute nightmare to rip everything apart.  What a time saver!

Here is a horrible picture of my design wall in action as it saved the day and helped me to spot 2 pieces that were somehow cut 1/2" off, even though I cut them in stacks of 4. Go figure. FYI: This picture was taken at night, so please forgive the terrible lighting.

Anyways, aside from writing exam 1 for my classes and grading papers, that is everything I have been working on this week. How about you? Anything exciting? Funny how this ended up not being a short entry at all.

Passport Cover Tutorial

Hello! I woke up this morning and decided to make up a passport cover to celebrate the fact that I bought tickets for myself and 2 of my favorite people to go to Ireland this summer. I started hunting everywhere for a tutorial that only held one passport and could not find anything I was happy with. So I had to make one. 

I apologize for the photo quality on some of these pictures because my sewing room is dimly lit.

To start with, you need a passport to measure, 2 strips of fabric (2" x 12"), 2 pieces of fabric (8" x 12"), embroidery thread in the color of your choosing, and a passport to measure from.

If you want to, you could use one fabric and skip the strip insertion section on the inside, outside, or both. Eventually you need two pieces of fabric measuring 6.5" x 12. 

I just love these red polka dots.

I used linen for the main fabric, which means I had to iron a lot during this process.

Then you are going to cut the 8" x 12" pieces in halfish leaving you with four 4" x 12" strips. They are oversized at this point so you can have more freedom when you select your final layout later.

Now you are going to sew the contrast strips to the main fabric. I pin like crazy to avoid fabric slipping.

Sew this all using a 1/4" seam. Make sure you take out the pins as you go to avoid running over them.

Once this is done, you are going to press the seam while it is closed to set the seam. 

 Then open it up and press to one side. Since I used linen, I pressed away from that to avoid a bulky mess.

Now you have this!

Next you need to add the second linen half with right sides facing.

Make sure you pin, pin, pin!

After you stitch it together with a 1/4" seam and press, you end up with this:

Now comes decision time. You need to decide what you want the cover to look like. You can center the passport on the stripe:

Or your might want to go for an asymmetrical look and have the passport not centered. This is why we made this a little oversized.

Once you make a decision, trim the strips to 6.5" x 12" and place these with right sides facing.

Don't forget to pin! I didn't pin on one side (left) because you need to leave one unstitched so you can turn it right side out. 

Stitch this with a 1/4" seam too.

Then you are going to clip the corners and turn it right side out. 

Fold in the open edge and edge stitch 1/4" from the edge.

Next is the part that I should have done before I put the layers together: The decorative stitching! I put a pencil line 1/4" from the edge of the stripe. I have never had an issue with pencil marks showing up after.

 Like I said before, you might want to do this before you sew the inside and outside together, but it isn't the end of the world if you forget like I did.

Start the needle from the inside so that the knot will be hidden.

Then just do your best to keep a consistent stitch size as you work your way across the top and bottom. You could also add some cute embroidery, maybe the first letter of the name on the passport so you can keep them organized. Or an airplane! Or your favorite country! Or an adorable animal! Or you can just do lines like me.

Finish it off and hide the knot inside by pushing it in. This picture also shows the edge stitching from before.

Now we are almost there! Go ahead and fold everything in half and press it to make the fold more defined. Trust me, it helps!

 I folded the sides over 1.75" and ironed the folds. Before you iron though, stick your passport in to make sure it fits. You might need to fold a little less or more over. Also, DO NOT IRON YOUR PASSPORT. I don't know if it would hurt it, but still, don't risk it!

Once you have both sides folded over, you are going to stitch across the top and bottom.

Then you are done! Bask in the glory of all that is awesome and enjoy your travels!

Sashiko & More/WIP

Most of this week has been spend cleaning and getting my sewing "studio" back in order. I have to use the quotes because I am trying to fit and entire apartment of stuff into one bedroom, which is extremely difficult. Luckily, I am back to having an actual desk to sew on instead of sitting on the floor with my sewing machine on a chair. Woohoo! Here's hoping for fewer knots in my neck and shoulders!

I have also been working on a bit of hand sewing, especially sashiko. Mostly because I love sashiko, but also because I can sit in my comfy chair and admire my new sewing desk. 

If anyone knows the proper way to transfer designs to dark embroidery fabric, please let me know, because I know I am doing it wrong. I purchased some of the iron on transfer pencils, but the markings do not go away, which works great for standard embroidery where you cover the whole line, but not so great for sashiko. I tried tracing patterns in a dotted pattern and it was just incredibly infuriating. What I ended up doing was printing the pattern on iron on transfer paper and ironing it onto the wrong side of fabric. FYI: Linen was used for these sashiko bunny coasters.

This shows what it looks like from the back when the pattern is ironed on. Obviously this is too hideous for the front, but for the back... who cares?!

So this means that I am stitching from the back, which looks like this:

And it looks like this from the front:

Unfortunately, stitching from the back means that some of the stitches end up crooked and wonky. So if you know a better way, please tell me! I implore you!

Although it isn't too terrible. The bunny still makes me happy. 

I also worked on one in reverse colors. Eventually I plan on making one more in each color.

And I figured this fabric would make the most perfect backing for the sashiko coasters since bunnies were the focal point on the front. Mmm, this fabric really needed a good use. 

Now that my new sewing machine is setup, I also started messing with machine quilting and decided to dig these mustache coasters out of my UFO pile. These coasters crack me up because the background fabric is a beautiful yellow batik, and the foreground fabric is bright pink and flowery. These fabrics are not so mustachey, but to me, it makes sense. Each one is quilted in a different way. Now I just need to find cheater needles that actually work so I can hide threads. I found the kind with the notch in the top, and have purchased two different brands of these and NEITHER WORKS. It just shreds the thread. I swear, there isn't even an opening in the top! I need side threading needles, but am not able to find them for a reasonable price. Any suggestions?

On a completely unrelated note, my Brussels sprouts and broccoli are slowly but surely making a comeback from their near death experience with the horrid cabbage worms. Woohoo!

Speaking of plants, another ear plant was purchased this week. I know, I know, there are already too many of these on my front porch, but this one has a branch that is all white! I have never seen such a thing! It needed a good home. Honest.

Oh, yeah, back to sewing. Somehow, I have been sewing and quilting for almost 3 years now, but never had a pincushion. That was remedied this week when I decided to try my hand at a cathedral window for the first time. The fabric is all from different charm swaps.

I also made a few blocks for the Japanese X-Block quilt. So this is 5 out of 30 and 11 are being made by Color Bee Shocked, which leaves me with 14 more to make. That is easy peasy.

So those are all of my WIPs for the week. I am leaving y'all with a pretty sunset picture from my drive out to my cousin's house.

What projects have you been working on this week?