I Made an Apron!

 I had been seeing those cross strap aprons all over the internet in the past year. You know, the ones that are long-ish and criss cross in the back, but have no apron strings? I have seen many that I love, but being able to sew, I wasn't about to buy one. So I googled patterns. I found LOTS of patterns.

The one I ended up choosing was a free tutorial from Susan of aboxoftwine.com. She is also on Instagram as @aboxoftwine. She mostly does crochet and such, and her version of this apron has a cute crocheted pocket. I decided to take this tutorial and make my own version of it.

I found a gorgeous canvas from Rifle Paper Co. on Fabricworm. Linen was Susan's choice, but I wanted something colorful, and a print as well. This is not a very heavy canvas. I pre-washed it, since I know canvas is prone to shrinking. I had decided to line mine, whereas Susan did not line hers. I used and Art Gallery print called Lyricist's Diary from the Raise the Volume collection. I chose Art Gallery because it's so light weight, plus I love the print. I added the two pockets to the front.

Here's a shot of the back. I am so happy with this and once I train myself to wear it all the time in the kitchen, my clothes will thank me. I cook and bake a lot, so I needed this. Also, it's a nod to my Great Aunt Charlotte, who I am named for. She almost always wore an apron. Every day. Check out the tutorial if you are interested in making one.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pink Checkerboard Scrap Quilt...Done

 When i was working on my tiny house project, I also worked on my pink string quilt. About halfway, or more, through that, I started another pink scrap quilt. I have lots of pink scraps, and I had cut a couple hundred into 2.5 inch squares. So I got some off white Kona  fabric and cut 2.5 inch strips and began sewing all those squares to them.

I had no idea how big this would be, but I thought the best way to do it was to sew 16 patch blocks and later, I could decide how many to make and how big I wanted it to be. I sewed a few 16 patch blocks almost every day for awhile.

I started putting them up on my design wall and I really fell in love! I took more scraps and cut more squares. I finally decided on a size that would cover the top of my bed with a wee bit of over hang. I planned to leave the larger quilt on underneath it.

This is the quilt with the quilting finished, but no binding on it. Blogger has once again re-ordered my pictures, so we'll just go with it. Okay?

Here is my label, sewn to a corner scrap on the back. You can see here, as well as the shot below, that I decided to go wild and bind the quilt with a bright spring green that I found in my stash.

I chose that color to deliberately stand out, like a stem on pink flowers. I found some of that green in one of my fabrics I used for the pink backing.

Here is a shot of the whole thing. It was almost too big for my husband tohold up, and the wind kept gusting while we were doing this.

This is the back of the quilt. Now you can really see where the green came from. It was either that, or turquoise. But alas, I had no turquoise. Bonnie Hunter makes some of her quilt backs like this. That's where I got the inspiration.

This was the day that I had to get down on the floor and pin baste. I have trouble with this, so I seldom make larger quilts any more. But this one was totally worth it.

The whole thing is quilted with organic horizontal lines of varying width apart. I am super happy with the look and texture of this quilt. And so glad to have a pink scrap quilt that is mine.

Thanks for stopping by.

Geesey Geesey Finished Pictures

I know I promised to come back and show off my finished quilt, but then I got busy and kinda forgot to take said pictures, until today.

I was waiting for a cloudy day, so the colors would not wash out.  I am pretty sure this is upside down, but, no matter.

The way I can tell, is that the pink backing bled a bit in the bottom right corner, which is in the upper left here. I used 2 color catchers with this, and they came out pink, but maybe two wasn't enough?

See the top right here? That old fabric is the culprit. It was an old batik I wanted to finally use up.

I had a few leftover geese so they flew onto the back of the quilt. I had forgotten how pretty this quilt is, until today when I saw it again. It has been sitting folded on a chair for awhile now.

 I also wanted to share this work in progress with you here.

I am working on another paper pieced string quilt now. I am trying to use up a bunch of my scraps in these two color bins. This is the third arrangement I have tried. I'm not set on any arrangement yet. It will sort of depend on how many of each block color I end up with. Well, I need to go work on these blocks. They won't sew themselves you know. Talk to you again soon.

June Spring Chicken

 I'm sure by now you have seen pictures of Sweetwater's Spring Chicken line. When I saw this back in October, I was smitten. This is the first time that they have done a fabric line that uses the colors that they used in Sunkissed. That was the first fabric line I ever bought on line. I fell so in love with it, and I have asked many times over the years if they would ever reprint it, but I never got an answer.

Well, now I have decided to just go with Spring Chicken. It is super cute and I think the colors have satisfied my needs. This line was supposed to be out in March, but Covid delayed it until May. I pre-ordered a half yard bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop back in October. I have never bought so much fabric all at once like this, and never an entire line either. But I had to have it, and there might not be another chance, right?

I have already sketched out a simple quilt to show off the fun fabrics. I know this will only be the first of several quilts, because there are 19 yards of fabric here! So much fabric!

I just had to get out my Sunkissed Squares quilt and lay all the fabrics on it to compare. My Sunkissed Squares quilt was made in 2011 and is my most favorite ever! The checkered gingham looking fabric is a part of the Sunkissed line, as well as Spring Chicken. When I bought Sunkissed, I did not have the whole line. I was an on line fabric newbie at the time. The other thing I noticed is that they did not use the pale yellow in the new Spring Chicken line. But all the other colors are there and that's okay by me.

      These are all the gingham like checks in the new line. Aren't they pretty?

Here is another print from the new line. I highly recommend that if these colors are your thing, buy some of this while you can. You never know if you will have another opportunity. Thus ends my PSA for today. I will be back when I have more of this quilt to share.

Kids Summer Shirts

 Awhile back I made some knit headbands for my daughter and granddaughter and some of their friends. There was a bunch of knit fabric leftover, and so we decided I should make some little tank tops for N for the summer time. I set about looking on line for a pattern to use, hoping I could find one that I liked for free. I always start with looking at free patterns, and then if I need to, I look at the ones I have to pay for. This time I hit the jackpot!

Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom had a knit tank pattern that was perfect. She had developed it to recycle and old adult size tee shirt for her daughter, but you can also use it to make a new knit tank. The pattern comes in sizes 3-16, I think, It has a higher neckline and armholes for more modesty for a little one. I made the size 6 tank. They are in the mail, so I don't know how well they will fit yet, but they were super easy to sew.

This knit was very thin, so I doubled it on the front of the shirt. The pattern calls for ribbed knit for the arm and neck binding, but I just used strips of the actual fabric, and it worked just fine.

You just need to be sure you cut the fabric in direction that it stretches the best for this to work.

I also matched up the stripes on these, between the front and the back. I think it makes them look less homemade.

The last thing, and quite important I think, it that I purchased needles to sew knits with. I had never done that before, but now that I have, I have to say I think it matters. I used one for all these shirts, and then put it back in the pack, marking it so I would know it had been used (even a little bit matters) I will always sew with the correct needle now!

Thanks for stopping by.