Quilt Market - Cowboy Quilt

A couple months ago I was sent some fabrics by Windham Fabrics -- with the goal in mind to make a mini quilt for their booth at quilt market. Well, when I signed up I wasn't quite expecting the fabrics I recieved. Cowboy fabric is not exactly my favorite thing. But I'd agreed to do the project (and on a tight pre-market timeline I couldn't leave them hanging)... so I made a mini. 

My quilt uses the Weather-vane quilt block (inspiration here). When I sat down to make the quilt, without feeling initially inspired by the cowboy themed fabric, I went to my "Quilt blocks to try" pinterest board. I always find that helpful. At least I tried a new block. 

I quilted it with a stretched meander and sent it on it's way. This quilt was hung with the other mini's in the Windham Fabrics booth at Quilt Market. I know I've seen pictures of it there, but I can't seem to find any of them online. So rather than make you see the blurry "screenshot from instagram" pics, these are all my own pics. 

Finished size: 18" x 18"

Fabric Basket

I've been sewing away at some slightly secret projects -- but in between those projects I've found a place for the quickie project. This is one of my favorite quickies - a little fabric basket.

I sewed this up a couple weeks ago before going back to Ohio for a wedding. It was given to my SIL who is (patiently) waiting for me to design/sew/quilt/etc her wedding quilt! This little basket has cotton duck canvas on the inside, and uses my new favorite Ikea fabric on the outside. It measures about 10" across and 7" tall.

Jaybird Quilts Sew Along!

I almost forgot! Head on over to Sara's blog to see my stop on the Jaybird Quilts Sew Along! I made the Mini Disco quilt! This little guy measures in at just 12.5" x 15.5" and it was a lot of fun to make!

Origami Box Pouch

Last night I decided to ignore all my sewing deadlines and sew something fun. Clearly I needed a little bit of scraps in my life. I had bought this little stack of scraps on an Instagram sale last week (from the fabulous Pattern Crush), the scraps arrived so quickly, and they've been calling to me all week!!

I decided to make an Origami Box Pouch since I hadn't tried that construction method yet. Of course I couldn't make it easy - I used some scraps of headliner fabric (a little thicker than Soft & Stable) - and I pieced the outside using the quilt as you go method. The fake Soft & Stable has great texture once quilted, I highly recommend it for small projects! 

The pouch came together pretty easily - my Juki can handle all the bulk of multiple layers of that foam! I had a little trouble on the one end - my pull loop got a little out of place and it's wonky. I'm leaving it that way because not everything has to be perfect. 

I didn't line this - the back side of the Soft & Stable is pretty sturdy, and I didn't want to add any more bulk. I haven't gotten around to covering the seams on the inside with bias - I may not even do that. Sometimes it just feels good to make something. It doesn't have to be perfect.

What is perfect though, is how nicely my inhaler and my inhaler spacer fit. Perfect! This one will stay with me - my purse looks a little more ready for spring this way!

Pillows and Fancy Free Motion Quilting

Recently I've been working on honing my skills at free motion quilting. I've been working mostly on smaller projects which lend themselves well to being densely / intricately quilted. I'm still not where I want to be with this, but I'm working on getting the movement and flow down so that it will translate easily into all my quilts.

On a whim this week I decided to make a pair of pillow covers for my cousin and his fiance. They are getting married this weekend, and as of last weekend I still hadn't decided on a gift - so handmade seemed to be the best option!

You might notice that these are made with the scraps from my "Modern in the City" challenge. The strips and strip sets were already partially pieced so why not? Jason and Andrea have not yet solidified their decor style - but both their living room and bedroom have grey and blue so these can go either place. I sure hope they love them as much as I do!

Blue Hair, Box Pouches, and Secret Sewing.

Well hello! I dyed my hair blue.

I've been working on several smaller projects the last few weeks. Truthfully it's still really hard to carve out the time for quilting while working full time (I miss my more part time schedule!). I've been working and quilting, and planning.

My ever growing quilt goals. I have so many of them -- but I'm slowly making a little progress. My ultimate goal is to be teaching. I'd love to teach classes locally, and I'd love to do so regularly. Getting myself out there is just the hardest part for me. It might be fear of rejection (many shops only hire their employees to teach - so it's pretty likely). Or fear of just not being good enough. Surely I know how to teach quilting, since I've been teaching my non-sewing friends for years, but something becomes more real when you're asking for payment in return.

Secret project

If I had extra space here at home I'd give individual lessons... that would be easier. I am not very good at the business side of requesting proper payment - from a shop or individual. Does anyone want to be my billing dept? 

FMQ practice on a quilted pillow

I am working slowly toward the goal of teaching, and toward the goal of sustaining my quilting habit through quilt related earned funds. I've recently been working on a couple magazine submissions, and I filmed another episode with Quilty. I'm super proud of these things. It feels good - like validation that I'm growing. I'm stacking up items on my "quilting resume." As a result I don't have a lot to share - these projects will be shown on blog hops, at quilt market, and in magazines in the future. I'm still holding my breath on some of them. We'll see how it all pans out.

I've been keeping busy and breaking up the "important sewing" by making smaller - nonsense projects (no thinking needed). The pictures in this post are all of these sorts of projects. Oilcloth boxy pouches, quilted pillows, and small little fabric buckets.

Fabric bucket

If only I were using this play time to make a dent in my personal sewing! My mind is so full of my next projects. I have a quilt in my head that will be for my brother and his new wife (!!). I also have plans for some fabric buckets and baskets - I'd love them to be intricately pieced - because what could be cuter than a very useful item that's intricately pieced? I also need to get working on items to sell - I need to amp up my Quiltcon fund before registration happens next month. I think I'll be making several oilcloth box pouches - and some sets of pouches. I'll probably sell them on Instagram so if you're into those sorts of things be sure to follow me there, my Instagram name is MommysNapTime. 

Chicago: A City Of Hope.

I can't believe it! I finished my challenge quilt on time!!

I finished on Wednesday, and it was so gloomy out that my pictures were not that great. This challenge was to be entered online, and the judges will only have our pictures and artist statement to go off of when deciding which quilts are used for the show... so I wanted my pictures to be great. I waited until Thursday (the last day for submission!), so I could get some better pictures.

I did indeed get better pics. I'm quite impressed. My friend Judy suggested taking my quilt to the public library to photograph - since the architecture at libraries typically allow for lots of natural light. She was right! My library has huge windows all along the sides, and they're the frosted glass kind, so it's not direct sunlight. Perfect! I walked back to the young adult stacks and laid my quilt on the floor (dark brown carpet - pretty neutral background!) - and I started snapping away. No one even noticed me, and if they would have I'm sure they wouldn't be bothered. 

So there you have it. Take your quilt pics at the library. Pick up a good book while you're at it!

My challenge quilt is titled "Chicago: A City of Hope." It's a really abstracted version of the Chicago map. The quilting is done in the layout of the Chicago El map, and it's bound in (pieced) Chicago flag stripes! 

I'm really happy with how it turned out. I don't specifically have a need for this quilt (other than to enter into the show), so I have listed it for sale (should it be accepted for the quilt show, it will be for sale there). That would be a nice addition to my Quiltcon fund. :) 

For now I'm just glad I got it done. Here's hoping it will hang with the rest of the "Modern in the City Challenge" quilts at the IQF in Chicago!