A Special Little Pouch

The other night I was overcome by the need to make a pouch for someone special. (Roseann, yours is up next I swear!). I thought about it, and knew it had to be a good mix of me and my friend's likes. I hope I found a good balance.

When it comes to pouches and mini quilts I have so many ideas floating around my head. So many fabric combos and block ideas. Things that just have to be made. I brainstormed a little bit and settled on three teeny stars (they measure 1 1/4" each), and a strip of navy corduroy. I was originally going to border this all in Kona Curry, but when it came to that point, the curry made everything look too boyish - so I went with hot pink. 

I really didn't do much planning, just a quick sketch and got sewing! I'm pretty surprised that those stars ended up in the right spot spacially! Again, I used this as an inspiration - but didn't follow any directions. Maybe I should have because I was a little rusty when it came to making this pouch fully lined and my topstitching doesn't go all the way to the tabs as a result. It'll turn out better next time I'm sure - unless I forget it again! lol!

Oh, and since I'm sure I'll forget later, the patchwork / quilted piece was 11" before sewing into a pouch. Just a little smaller than I'd planned! 

I'm linking up to Fabric Tuesday too! Go head on over for some inspiration!

Pillows!!!!

We finally have grown up and have a couch again! Which means....

We're now getting major use out of all my quilty pillows!! Two of them were made by me, and two of them I've received in the Pillow Talk Swap. They all fit in nicely and I must say that they're extra cozy since we know they were made with love! (and the one with the target $4 clearance pillow as in insert is much much cozier than the others which were a rip-off from joann's... note to self)

Now to cuddle up on our new loveseat with these pillows and maybe a quilt or two? Who said you can't use quilts in the summer... I freeze anytime the air conditioning is on!

Scrappy Tiny Fun...

Those squares are 1.5" to start, they're not all sewn together yet... but fused to interfacing.

I've been commissioned (hehe don't I feel special) by my aunt to make her some fancy pretty not-wrinkly fitted table covers (not table cloths) for her art show booth. It's time to bite the bullet and start working on them! I hope to be making some major progress on them soon (despite the fact that my family will be in this week... which = not much sewing time but lots of other kinds of fun time!).

This being considered I don't want to start up any major quilting projects until the table covers are finished. So to keep myself from making a million tiny (not so useable) things, I've made a plan to make my little intermissions of quilting time add up. I'm going to work on a quilt I'm calling "Scrappy, Tiny, Fun" (real creative right?). Here's what I'm thinking:

Goals:

• Stay focused on Aunt Kathy's table covers (don't start anything big where I'll want to only work on the new project and not the one which requires my time!)
• try a new color scheme
• try new blocks/be creative
• use orphan quilt blocks (those test blocks from my bee... etc)
• use scraps
• make less mug rug / randomness (these small projects that I do all the time and usually give away since I just love finishing something!)
• to have fun!
• make a quilt I love that incorporates my love of tiny piecing (without becoming to overwhelmed by the tiny stuff).

This entire block is less than 5" x 7" ... average cross is about 1.5" finished

Colors:

• no pink 
• no purple
• (anything else goes... the above can be used very very sparingly)
• mostly saturated and/or solid colors.

 Anyone want to join me? Feel free to do so if you'd like (please let me know - I'd love to be inspired by the sort of blocks you pick out!). This quilt can be whatever you like (duh). I'm choosing to list out many different blocks/block styles that I'd love to try. I've already got about 11 block ideas sketched out in my notebook... I'll just cross them off etc once I finish each one. I may make a mosaic of the different styles.

Adding in a few orphan blocks... I forgot a couple of them though.

Once I have the blocks all completed (give or take) I'll just sew them together into groupings etc. I have a general idea of how I'd like it to look. A modern wacky sampler if you will... with a pieced quote going through the whole thing. Will I be able to pull it off? Who knows. lol...

White...

So I still haven't had my sewing machine looked at... it's still all locked up.... annoying. Wally's going to take it to the shop on saturday.... hopefully it's not too expensive (I couldn't imagine pumping $100 into it since it's total cost isn't much more than double that). We'll see. 

Sew Beautiful Bee - May block for Angela

In the meantime, I set up my old singer machine (wilma) ... and she has a tendency to run a bit slow. I was able to manage through it to sew up my bee block last night, and to do some work on my pretty little pouch swap. But let me tell you, slow sewing is boring and it was getting really tedious. Maybe there's something wrong with that machine too? Who knows. All I know is that I was annoyed enough that I wasn't going to try to finish quilting using that machine. No way! So out came my old White machine (handed down to me when I was about 12... the thing pieced about a dozen quilts the year before I recieved it (my aunt was a machine!)... and I used it for about five years before getting a new one. And...

The white still rocks! It's speedy and quieter than the older singer. It's sturdy as heck... metal casing and everything. The downside is that I only could find one bobbin for it... which I had to unwind in order to put a new color on. The machine powered through the quilting and I'm nearly finished!!! Oh and my walking foot fits on it too! At least I've got a good backup. I miss Nancy though, she's a good machine. 

Linked up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday!!

Dear Urban Home Goods Swap Partner...

This little guy was used today.

I just made you something that I really really really want to keep for myself. I sure hope you love it just as much. Pictures will follow... but for now it's too dark to take them.

I used this tutorial (sort of)... I didn't follow it very well and didn't really measure so ended up having to re-do several parts. But it was way worth it in the end. I want to just look at it all night.