Birthday Sewing

 My birthday was last week. I gave myself the day off and stayed home and sewed! I made a tablecloth quilt for our new dining room table.

The pattern I used is called Moda Love. It is a free pattern from Moda. I adjust the size of the finished squares to 7" finished so that it would fit my 46" round table. This version will finish at 56" by 56".

I am calling this quilt "Here Kitty Kitty" because I dug into my larger-than-I-thought collection of cat fabrics. I used 18 different cat prints for this project which isn't even half of my collection!

Fun fact: the cat print shown below was purchased exactly 20 years ago on my birthday from a quilt shop in San Diego. I used it to make a baby quilt for my son, who I was pregnant with when I bought the fabric. So, of course, I had to use a bit of it for this quilt too!

Stacks Top Done

This top went together quickly. It uses the method of strip piecing.

It is pretty big at 73" by 81" - a generous twin size. It is too long to hang properly from my clothesline in the vertical orientation, so I turned it sideways. Then the wind took over.

I need to decide if I want a single fabric backing or if I want to do a pieced back. I will think about that for a bit before proceeding.

To read my first post about this project which includes the reason for making it, click here.

Starting Something New: Stacks

Yesterday I taught a class at Kathy's Fabric Trunk and came home with a new project.

Kathy's birthday is in August. She has a folder of free patterns to choose from, all requiring fat quarters and a background fabric. You choose a pattern, make the quilt, and turn it in before August 15th (I think that's the deadline). The quilts hang for her birthday celebration and the makers are entered into a drawing.

The pattern I chose is called Stacks. When I got home yesterday afternoon I pulled out a few fabric bins that hold collections. I decided to use the above fabrics from one of my favorite collections. I just love the intense colors. I thought about using scraps, but decided that it would be faster, and more enjoyable, to just follow the directions rather than having to figure out how to make my scraps work. Sometimes it is better to trust the pattern writer and just enjoy the process rather than reinvent the pattern.

I am still tidying too, but can't do it for long periods of time. Click here to read about my tidying adventure; it's the second part of this post.

Birthday Bag

It was my birthday last week. My mom made me this cool new bag.

Thanks Mom! I love it! Some of the selvedges she used were ones I sent her.

I had a great birthday and got to do some sewing. You'll get to see what I made/finished over the next few days.

Birthday Purse

One of my nieces is turning 6 this Saturday. I made her a purse today to send her. It's the same pattern as the one I made for her big sister, but with different fabrics. I asked my mom for advice in picking fabrics. My instructions were purple, orange and bright. Do you think I followed directions?

Playing with Paint Sticks

Above, my birthday gift to myself - a set of iridescent paint sticks, stencil brushes and brush cleaner - along with a photo copy of an hibiscus that I outlined with a Sharpie. I traced the hibiscus onto freezer paper and then cut it out (a painstaking process but hopefully worth it). Below is a photo of the stencil ironed to my fabric as I am stenciling.

Below is what I ended up with. I used silver as a base color but it looks more gray to me, at least on this fabric. On top of the silver/gray I used a green on the leaves and a dark blue on the flower.
The image is now curing (i.e. hanging on my design wall drying). The directions say to let it cure 3 to 7 days, depending on how heavily you applied the paint. I think I put it on pretty light so I think I'll wait until Thursday or Friday (3 or 4 days) before proceeding. The next step is to heat set the image by pressing it with a hot iron. Then I am going to quilt this somehow.

So far I have learned: (1) I need to test the paints on a corner of the fabric to see what they will look like before using them on my image; (2) the cutting out process of the stencil is not fun and takes as long or longer than the painting process; (3) cleaning the brushes is also time consuming so painting several pieces at the same time would be a better use of my time (and I may need more stencil brushes for this).

I think this was a good investment. It's a way to create custom fabric and is not as messy or time consuming as dying fabric.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Most of the day is over and it's been a good birthday. Here is what my mom and sister sent me. The card on top of the chocolate covered cherries is a gift certificate to my local quilt shop. I used it today when I purchased the present I ordered for myself. I got to spend the afternoon playing with my new purchase. I'll post photos of that project later this week.

The pin cushion my mom made for me is so cute! Here is a close up shot of it. She put some sand in the bottom so it is heavier than it looks.

She is so talented! I asked her for the pattern. I've got a whole box of wool someone gave me in addition to a small drawer of scraps.