fabricologist

fabricologist

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Go Chiefs!

No, this has not become a sports blog. I just made a stadium quilt from a pattern by Carla who blogs at Creating in the Sticks. It is a quick and easy pattern for any sports fan and if you want to make one for a Christmas gift for your sports fan,  I can tell you it only took me 2 1/2 hours to cut and piece the top.  Does that sound good to you? Take a look:







This pattern is quick, easy and reasonably priced. I made this quilt for my brother, who lives in Vermont, but is a Kansas City boy.  So we are ready for another week of football with the 9-1 Chiefs.
Go Chiefs and enjoy your weekend. Talk to you soon.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Another Wristlet

This was not the finish I thought to share today, but the other has to wait, for now. Remember last year when I was a wristlet making fool? I made 9 of these bad boys to give as gifts and one for myself.  The pattern is from Trillium Designs.

A friend wanted one when she saw the one I made for my sister. Her droid phone is larger than an iphone, so I had to enlarge the pattern a little bit.  The first picture is the new one, next to my old dirty one, for size comparison.





 I cut the pattern pieces an inch larger in width and length. I hope her phone will fit, but I think it will.

 She wanted butterflies on a black background for the outside and a pink plaid for the inside.  I had a pink zipper, so that was what I used and I think it works.
                         There is a magnetic snap closure on the top fold down flap.
      If you look carefully you will see there is even a butterfly in the zippered pocket.
 And a big butterfly on the back.  This is such pretty fabric.  I hope she loves it.
Through sheer dumb luck, it looks like this is a whole butterfly on the front where the pocket meets the front panel. I assure you, I am not that good.  This is a great pattern and next up I am going to make myself a new one...in a darker color that won't show the dirt.  Have a great weekend! Talk to you soon.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Derailed

Have you ever been derailed in your plans? I'm sure you have. Happens to everyone. I was planning on getting this quilt completely finished last week.

I was quilting along. I was in the zone. It was going great...until I ran out of white thread. Really. White thread. Who doesn't have tons of white thread? Me, apparently. I had no spare time and no spare cash last week, so I pushed this aside and tried to move on to other things.  Yesterday I went to Joann and bought some white thread. I came home and loaded my bobbin and started to sew. Wasn't feeling it. Quit. This morning, again, started quilting, made it through a couple of spools and quit. I have been wandering around, trying to motivate my sewing muse. No deal.  So I cleaned instead. Sometimes my muse won't work if things get too cluttered and messy. So that's done....

 And then I got distracted by these. I pulled from my big stash of charms, greens and blues and put them on the wall. I love the way they look.  This is 7 x 7 but I cropped it to see if I liked the yellow and blue for a border...
 ...or the orange and yellow. Still haven't decided. Anyone have an opinion they'd be willing to share?
 I also pulled a stack of Christmas fabrics for inspiration and started cutting pieces for some ornaments and other sewing gifts.  Hopefully if they are all cut, assembly will happen soon.  Still have that Spools quilt to deal with, remember?
And this little stack has been sitting there mocking me for months. These little white pieces are from my Rainbow Retro Flowers quilt. I keep thinking there's gotta be a cool use for them, but I haven't found it yet. I was thinking raw edge stitching them onto some colorful fabric. I need inspiration or ideas here. Hopefully soon.  Hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon.

Friday, November 15, 2013

A Late Friday Finish

Well, it's only a little after 8 pm so it still counts as a Friday finish, right? I wanted to post sooner, but an 8 hour work day, followed by laying tile, picking up the grandson and dropping him and Mr. GQ at the Carolina basketball game has slowed me down some.  Any way, here is my Friday Finish...and I am sorry for all the pictures, but I couldn't leave any out.

                         Here is Briar Rose, getting ready to apply the binding....

                  Here is Briar Rose, lounging in a chair on the back deck in the afternoon...
                   Here is Briar Rose lying on the deck as the sun sinks slowly...
                                 A close up with a few late afternoon shadows...
 Here is Briar Rose with her little sister, Briar Rose 2, both freshly crinkled from the dryer...
 Here is the Back of Briar Rose...backed with Daisy Chain by Amy Butler and Summersault by Erin McMorris for Free Spirit. The whole quilt is quilted with wavy lines in an on point grid that follows the blocks.
                               Here are both of the Briar Roses rolled up...
                                          A close up of the binding...

                    A close up of the cuteness that is Briar Rose 2...she is so petite!
And I love those Nanny Bees!  See you soon.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

WIP Wednesday

I am still quilting every chance I get, trying like crazy to finish up some of those quilt tops I have lying around. Much progress is being made.  Here is today's installment.

 I am quilting my Spools quilt. This is a quilt pattern by Camille Roskelly. I fell in love with it when I saw it. The stacked off-set spools are so cute and just a bit different from most spool quilts.
 This one is getting quite a bit of quilting, as seems to be what my quilts are crying out for these days.
 I am doing a swirl around the main spool part, to imitate thread. The ends of the spools are getting quilted base on the fabric in them. Small stripes for this one...
      ...and round doodles for the one with the polka dots.  I am loving this quilt already.
The white sashing is going to be figure 8s. I am about half way done with this baby and hopefully I can have it done in about another week. The fabric I used was a fat eighth of Fig Tree's Strawberry Fields.
Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Christmas Trees and Tie Dye

I've been quilting away here this week pretty steadily. I have finished one quilt that just needs binding and am quilting another before I bind them both. Meanwhile, I spent a little time piecing and doing some tie dye with my sweet Grandson, V. Let's start with that.

 Here is a t-shirt for baby B. We watched the video that came with the tie dye kit and I let V pick the ways in which we would tie each of the shirts.
 He wanted a swirl for his shirt and even though I doubted my ability to do this one, with his encouragement, I did just fine.
                                        We did the dots and spots for his mom's t-shirt...
 ...and a scrunchy line down one side of mine. We were almost done when he said we needed to make something for grandaddy. So I found a pair of white socks to use up the last of the dye.
The other reason I wanted to tie dye was to make this:

It is two yards of Kona white, or rather it was Kona white. Now I need to decide what to make with it. It is almost too cool to cut up.  Any suggestions?

Now, about those Christmas trees. Christa, at Christa Quilts is having a Modern Christmas Tees Quilt Along.  And this is my interpretaion of her pattern:

I cut the trees from a Robert Kaufman print from the classic quilts line. I thought they would make very cool modern trees.  I struggled a bit with the background. I knew I wanted it to be pink, but I auditioned a couple and wasn't satisfied. I tried green...nope...red...nope. Had to be pink. But I didn't have a lot of any one pink. So the solution was to make it patchwork. I used one pink around the trees for each row and am now filling in the rest with patchwork.  I have a love/hate relationship with this little quilt top. Some days I hate it and I walk away. The next time I see it, I love it again. Well that's it for today. See you soon.


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Now I Can Share

So my sister's quilts got to California okay and now I can share the other one. If you recall, this was the quilt I made for my sister K. She loved it, by the way.

And as a treat to my sister S who is a world traveler, I made another lap quilt with this fun Italy print collection by Dear Stella. My sister's favorite country is Italy, so I knew I had to make her something from this cute fabric line.

 There were Vespas and maps and stripes. I bought a half yard of each of the fabrics, with no real plan in mind except to make a quilt. Because of that, I ran a tiny bit short and in the photo above, if you look closely, you can see I pieced one of the squares.
 I had just barely enough of the stripes to bind the edges of this lovely lap quilt.  Excuse the order of the pictures. I am not computer savvy enough to rearrange them.

 Here is the front of the quilt.  I wish you could see all the little maps and buildings that are labeled. It is too cute.
 The grey print is sort of an aerial view of a body of water and surrounding area. I loved that print.
 Here is the back. I used up all the big chunks and added some Terrain by Kate Spain. I still came up short so I used a darker blue green print that I have had forever. It just felt Italian to me.
 My sister was very surprised and that is just what I wanted. I do love a good surprise gift.
I am glad I was finally able to share this. I have been dying to show it off, but I am glad I was able to keep a secret. The end result was fun!
Talk to you soon.